ABSTRACT
The fundamental question of Molyneux’s design of whether a new sense elicits a new idea or an idea from existing sense is global and ahistorical: transcending cultures and times. Yet, the changes from Mozi to Ibn Ṭufayl to Molyneux are historical—they demonstrate an evolution in methodology and intuition. This methodology begins with inquiries into the limits of knowledge—Mozi’s person born blind cannot identify colors—and evolves to knowledge kinds—Ibn Ṭufayl’s person newly sighted possesses a kind of knowledge of color. In sum, the fundamental inquiry of Molyneux’s question concerned something that we now know is not achievable using Molyneux’s original experimental paradigm. The design of Molyneux’s question was no doubt influenced by his work on optical problems, published in Dioptrica Nova along with a historical overview of how Molyneux’s question influenced a range of philosophers: both medical and mathematical, like Cheselden and Robert Smith, and theoretical, like Berkeley and Porterfield.
