A Cabinet of Philosophical Curiosities by Roy Sorensen

Author:Roy Sorensen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Profile Books

The solution is eight: four small ones and four bigger ones (composed of pairs of adjacent smaller triangles). This riddle tricks us by counting superimposed triangles as distinct triangles. Paradoxes do not rely on these shallow shenanigans. Everything is done in plain sight. The problem is that there are too many good answers. This is an embarrassment of riches because the answers are incompatible.

The abstractness of mathematical riddles contrasts with the visual riddles in children’s books. A typical ‘I-spy’ riddle presents a cluttered drawer along with the instruction to find a cufflink. This is an effortful, visual search with a definite outcome.

Visual riddles in philosophy may be abstract or concrete. But they are rarely decisive. The point of the riddle is to tease out hidden conflicts. For instance, Fred Dretske is happy to use the cufflink example. But Dretske, in Seeing and Knowing, asks a different question: ‘Did you see the cufflink when you first looked at it – or only after you recognised it as a cufflink?’ On the one hand, we are inclined to accept the principle that if you look at something, then you see it. Euclid relies on this principle when mapping out the visual field. On the other hand, we are inclined to believe that seeing implies believing – or at least noticing.

To uphold the objectivity of perception, Dretske weakens the link between seeing and believing (to allow observation to surprise theory). This resolution of the dilemma depends on delicate weighing of evidence, not an ‘Aha!’ insight of riddles in mathematics and children’s books.

The agenda for visual riddles is set by the questions our visual system evolved to answer. In daylight, ‘What is that?’ is nearly always answered effortlessly. Vision seems to be passive. But we are also designed to see at night. Seeing is so important that the system will not quit even when the quantity of data is meagre and the quality of data is abysmal.

The visual system is plucky. It compulsively tries to identify objects that are almost wholly occluded.

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