# Molyneux's problem

- kind: problem
- status: partial
- year: 1688
- authors: William Molyneux, in a letter to John Locke

**Statement.** Could a person born blind, who learns shapes by touch, recognize them by sight alone on gaining vision?

For three centuries it was a thought experiment about innate ideas. Cataract surgery in India under Project Prakash let it be tested: patients could not immediately match seen shapes to touched ones, but learned within days. A philosophical question became an experiment, though what the result means is still argued.

Posed 1688, William Molyneux, in a letter to John Locke. Closed 2011, Held and colleagues test newly sighted patients.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Molyneux's problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molyneux%27s_problem)

[Knowledge](/wiki/Space:knowledge.md) · [Philosophy](/wiki/Continent:philosophy.md)

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