“O God of Newton and Clarke, have mercy on me!”: Nicholas Saunderson, Denis Diderot and the only possible answer to Molyneux’s question
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This essay deals with the early discussion of Molyneux’s question - which may hopefully cast some light on the contemporary debate – and is written from an historical point of view. I will claim that, in the eighteenth century history of Molyneux’s question, there is a leading figure: Denis Diderot; the most original and fruitful answer is given in his Lettre sur les aveugles à l’usage de ceux qui voient (1749). From the historical background of Diderot’s analysis, both the merits and limitations of the negative and positive answers, along with the inadequacy of the standard classification between “empiricists” and “rationalists”, will also emerge. Diderot’s “relativistic” solution is a turning point in the whole philosophical discussion of Molyneux’s question, in that it has been confirmed by clinical reports of surgical operations of blind people, starting from Cheselden’s case.
Source: Philosophy and the Mind Sciences
Author: Silvia Parigi
Institution: Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4404599936