The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
many sensible kinds? Rough sounds, heavy smells, hard lights, cold
colors, are other examples. Nor does it follow from such analogies as
these that the sensations compared need be composite and have some
of their parts identical. We saw in Chapter XIII that likeness and
difference are an elementary relation, not to be resolved in every
case into a mixture of absolute identity and absolute heterogeneity of
content (cf. Vol. I, pp. 492-3).
I conclude, then, that although in its more superficial determinations
the blind man's space is very different from our space, yet a deep
analogy remains between the two. 'Big' and 'little,' 'far' and
'near,' are similar contents of consciousness in both of us. But the
_measure_ of the bigness and the farness is very different in him and
in ourselves. He, for example, can have no notion of what we mean by
objects appearing smaller as they move away, because he must always
conceive of them as of their constant tactile size. Nor, whatever
analogy the two extensions involve, should we expect that a blind man
receiving sight for the first time should recognize his new-given
optical objects by their familiar tactile names. Molyneux wrote to
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 the 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; query, whether by his sight, before he touched them, he
could now distinguish and tell which is the globe, which the cube?"
This has remained in literature as 'Molyneux's query.' Molyneux
answered 'No.' And Locke says:[208]
"I agree with this thinking gentleman whom I am proud to call my
friend, and am of opinion that the blind man at first sight would not
be able to say which was the globe, which the cube, whilst he only saw
them; though he could unerringly name them by his touch and certainly
distinguish them by the difference of their figures felt."
This opinion has not lacked experimental confirmation. From
Chesselden's case downwards, patients operated for congenital cataract
have been unable to name at first the things they saw. "So, Puss, I
shall know you another time," said Chesselden's patient, after catching
the cat, looking at her steadfastly, and setting her down. Some of
this incapacity is unquestionably due to general mental confusion at
the new experience, and to the excessively unfavorable conditions for
perception which an eye with its lens just extirpated affords. That the
analogy of inner nature between the retinal and tactile sensations goes
beyond mere extensity is proved by the cases where the patients were
the most intelligent, as in the young man operated on by Dr. Franz,
who named circular, triangular, and quadrangular figures at first
sight.[209]
VISUAL SPACE.
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