ABSTRACT
William Molyneux stated the first version of the question that made him famous in his letter of 7 July 1688 to John Locke, who at that time lived in the Netherlands, officially the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. A few years earlier, in 1683, Locke had fled to the safety and tolerance of Holland, under strong suspicion of involvement in the Rye House Plot. Most of the affirmative answers are based on the opinion that a man born blind and enabled to see will be able to distinguish a cube from a sphere because he will recognise by sight the corners and pointy parts of the cube and the round and smooth surface of the globe he has felt before. Some respondents added: “after thinking”, “eventually”, “after some time” or “with some effort”.
