Page "Denis Diderot" Paragraph 16

Diderot's celebrated Lettre sur les aveugles à l ' usage de ceux qui voient (" Letter on the Blind ") ( 1749 ), introduced him to the world as a daringly original thinker.

The subject is a discussion of the interrelation between man's reason and the knowledge acquired through perception ( the five senses ).

The title, " Letter on the Blind For the Use of Those Who See ", also evoked some ironic doubt about who exactly were " the blind " under discussion.

In the essay a blind English mathematician named Saunderson argues that since knowledge derives from the senses, then mathematics is the only form of knowledge that both he and a sighted person can agree about.

It is suggested that the blind could be taught to read through their sense of touch ( a later essay, Lettre sur les sourds et muets, considered the case of a similar deprivation in the deaf and mute ).

What makes the Lettre sur les aveugles so remarkable, however, is its distinct, if undeveloped, presentation of the theory of variation and natural selection.