
- 226 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
A Pluralist’s Guide to Solving Molyneux’s Problem
About this book
This book presents a novel pluralist strategy for answering Molyneux's 300+-year-old conundrum: Would a person, born blind but given sight, identify a shape previously known only by their touch? The author interweaves historical scholarship with contemporary philosophical work and empirical research on animal, infant, and adult human perception.
The author argues that we need a new approach to Molyneux's problem because we do not know what the problem is really about, and it is untestable because a Molyneux subject cannot be physically realized. He criticizes Molyneux's question for its simplistic taxonomy of "the blind" that groups significant individual differences into a singular ontology. Research in the cognitive sciences confirms that various kinds of blindness can co-occur, such as ocular, cortical, and psychological blindness. Therefore, the author adopts an explanatory pluralism for answering Molyneux's problem, which includes no, yes, and "no answer" answers according to the domain of inquiry being used. This account provides a research-based answer to a long-standing problem using previously unheeded insights particularly from animal crossmodal perception studies to retell a more complex story of perception: its levels of explanation and integration.
A Pluralist's Guide to Solving Molyneux's Problem will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in comparative psychology, epistemology, history of philosophy, philosophy of perception.
Frequently asked questions
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Series
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Preface
- Plan of the Book
- 1 Seven Problems for the Two-Choice Approach to Molyneux’s Problem
- 2 Molyneux’s Tool and the Philosophy of Perception
- 3 Puzzle Pluralism: A Broad Explanatory Account for Molyneux’s Problem
- 4 A Pluralist Resolution to Molyneux’s Problem
- 5 Locke’s Answer and a Plug and Play History of Molyneux’s Problem
- 6 The New Molyneux Problem
- 7 Molyneux’s Animals: Promises and Problems
- 8 Meaningful Movements of Molyneux’s Animals
- 9 Molyneux’s Underwater Animals and the Possibility of a Supramodal Sense
- 10 A New Skill-Based Experimental Paradigm for Testing Molyneux’s Problem
- Epilogue
- Index