Commentary: “Multimodal Theories of Recognition and Their Relation to Molyneux's Question”

Molyneux’s Question Within and Across the Senses

“…For earlier discussion of this 'common-coding' proposal and its relation to Molyneux's question, seeAltieri 2015, Schwenkler 2015 …”

Response: Commentary: Multimodal theories of recognition and their relation to Molyneux's question

“…The primary controversy described by Schwenkler ( 2015 ) concerns the extent to which MQ generalizes to situations involving other sensory modalities given the veracity of common code theory . Take, for instance, the McGurk effect (McGurk and MacDonald, 1976 ).…”

“…When William Molyneux posed his famous thought experiment to the philosopher, John Locke, it was framed to address the transfer of sensory information between touch and vision. Molyneux's Question (MQ), appearing in Altieri ( 2015 ) and also Schwenkler ( 2015 ), was stated by Locke: “Suppose a man born blind, and now adult, and taught by his touch to distinguish between a Cube, and a Sphere…, so as to tell, when he felt one and t'other, which is the Cube, which the Sphere. Suppose then the Cube and Sphere placed on a Table, and the Blind Man to be made to see.…”

“…I argue in this paper that MQ has far broader ramifications than a thought experiment inquiring whether visual-to-tactile representations are acquired through sensory experience. Specifically, I will respond to Schwenkler ( 2015 ) and argue that MQ generalizes, in certain cases, to other modalities such as audition and vision.…”

“…Recently, I argued (2015) that an affirmative answer to MQ does not necessarily imply nativism, which is the position that (certain) ideas or representations exist prior to sensory experience. Nativist theories, Schwenkler ( 2015 ) and I seem to agree, require additional assumptions before they definitively predict a “Yes” response to MQ. Such a variety of nativism requires sensory information—auditory and tactile in the specific case of MQ—to subsist in a common amodal code .…”