The Molyneux Problem - an interesting philosophy experiment

I was reading this and that on philosophy when I came across this Molyneux Problem on wikipedia. Th philosophical problem was formed by a guy named William Molyneux in the 16th century:

"if a man born blind can feel the differences between shapes such as spheres and cubes, could he similarly distinguish those objects by sight if given the ability to see?"

Apparently this was an unsolved problem for a while until experiments were done where congenitally blind individuals had their sight restored. Basically, although the individuals could differentiate between objects purely by touch, if they were to look at the same object without touch they were not able to distinguish what they were purely by sight.

Interesting aye? - thought I'd share that as my first post!

His tool of sight didn't have the development that was needed to "see" things properly.

This is further proof that everything has to be learned.

It can be hard to conceive that without sight, if you were to hold a sphere in your hand and feel the curvature and roundness of it - that the shape your hands form around that object doesn't translate to visual recognition.

I wonder if a person who was blind and has their sight restored, if the process that they go through in visually deciphering their environment is the same as a baby born with vision goes through.

Everett
I would think not because the blind person would have predisposed conceptions of what things were whereas a baby would not.

yah, I think the connection between sight and touch is learned not innate

Perhaps it's to do with 'neuroplasticity', in that a sensory impaired person's brain reallocates resources to remaining senses, and these senses typically become hypersensitive, and occasionally extraordinary. If this phenomenon holds any truth, it's altogether plausible that these people's brains weren't doing much with the optical information they were receiving. It may also stand to reason, that the younger subjects would have more success at differentiating between the two shapes, than someone who has lived with and adapted to blindness for many years. who knows