Perceptual reference, object files and Molyneux's Question

Abstract

Molyneux’s Question (MQ) —whether a newly sighted might immediately recognize tactilely familiar shapes by sight alone— remains inconclusive. The most common way to pose the question is in representational terms, i.e., whether vision and touch generate or not similar representational types or whether there is some intrinsic similarity between visual and tactual shape representations. Recent developments in cross-modal perception suggest that if visual and tactile representations are linked, then a positive response to MQ is the most probable conclusion. In this paper, I explore and provide some suggestions for this possibility. In particular, I give rise to the object file strategy, according to which, if part of the tactile information is referentially encoded and amodally stored in object files, then the category-specific contents of R(vision) and R(touch) are in some way propositionally (conceptually) linked, thus opening a wide avenue to think that a newly sighted might recognize tactilely familiar shapes by sight alone.