Molyneux’s Question and Somatosensory Spaces

Abstract

Molyneux’s question was intended as a thought experiment. This chapter informs that there are two equally legitimate ways of interpreting the phrase “made to see” in Locke’s formulation. It invokes the idealist interpretation: the subject is made to see by magic, as it were; and explains that for any thought experiment to be useful, the scenario in question has to be possible. The chapter highlights that Molyneux’s question has received much attention since the eighteenth century, and different interpretations and treatments have been proposed. Amongst the empirical approaches, there have been many clinical and developmental studies in the literature. The chapter proposes that in addition to the clinical and the developmental studies, empirical studies on somatosensory spaces are also relevant to Molyneux’s question. True, this is yet another way that is unable to deliver a definitive answer to the question.