An Ecological Approach to Molyneux’s Problem

Abstract

Molyneux’s Problem refers to a thought experiment that goes as follows: if a person with congenital blindness, capable of recognizing a sphere and a cube by touch, were to recover his sight, would he be able to visually recognize both? The problem is philosophical, and up to date empirical attempts to solve it are not conclusive. In this poster we offer a theoretical analysis of the problem, and we propose a methodological approach to the empirical treatment of the problem from an ecological perspective. In order to achieve this objective, we propose an experiment in which the participants will have to carry out an object recognition task similar to the one proposed by Molyneux in the original problem but, instead of using vision, they will use a vibrotactile device with which they will not have any prior experience. This experiment will allow us to test a "reverse Molyneux". In this sense, what we offer is a methodological reconstruction of the Molyneux’s problem to transform it into an empirical problem, despite its own limitations when it was conceived as a thought or philosophical experiment. We argue that this can only be done by applying an ecological approach to the problem.