Sight unseen

by Bryan Magee

An intensely personal discussion of what it means to the lack the sense of sight. Sight unseen opens the eyes of the sighted to the world as experienced by the blind. What begins as a philosophical exchange between the noted philosopher and broadcaster Bryan Magee and the late Martin Milligan, activist and philosopher , blind almost from birth, develops into a personal and intense discussion of the implications of blindness.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Bryan Edgar Magee was a noted British broadcasting personality, politician, poet, and author, best known as a popularizer of philosophy.

He attended Keble College, Oxford where he studied History as an undergraduate and then Philosophy, Politics and Economics in one year. He also spent a year studying philosophy at Yale University on a post-graduate fellowship.

Magee's most important influence on society remains his efforts to make philosophy accessible to the layman. Transcripts of his television series "Men of Ideas" are available in published form in the book Talking Philosophy. This book provides a readable and wide-ranging introduction to modern Anglo-American philosophy.

Reviews

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“... the greatest of all intellectual temptations, namely self-indulgence, [is] the temptation to believe whatever it comforts us to believe, or what fits our temperament, or suits our convenience. This is the line of least resistance, and many are those who take it...”

So says Bryan Magee in his post-script to this exchange of letters between him and fellow philosopher Martin Milligan. But despite his stated intention to challenge his own thinking about the world by corresponding with a blind man about the thing he felt distinguished their experiences most from each other - the question of sight - I felt Magee never quite managed to break away from this line of least resistance himself.

I found Magee’s letters difficult. There’s a certain arrogance - not necessarily a lack of humility about the limits of his own knowledge, but a failure to acknowledge the extent and validity of Milligan’s. On the other hand, Milligan’s letters were a treat: full of slow grace and sharp reasoning, which I really enjoyed. I’d recommend it for those alone, though they make little sense without the overall exchange.

The book might have been different had Milligan not died after only the eighth letter. It’s obvious that the men liked or respected each other, that a lot was said on the phone that added a human dimension to the letters - and perhaps over time each writer’s understanding would have curved gently towards the other’s. As it is, it’s interesting and thought-provoking, but cut all too short.

[Jacob Smullyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magee approaches this dialogue with Milligan with a Kantian agenda - he wants to get a feel for the gap between how the blind and sighted apprehend the world, for what that might reveal about all our inborn perceptual and cognitive limitations and the ways in which they may lead us to have overly reified and limited notions of what there is. Milligan, not deeply persuaded by this agenda, tend to deny that the sighted have any important knowledge that the blind do not possess. Magee, in his final letter to the reader, interprets Milligan's refusal to accept this epistemic gap as evidence for it, and strives to make perhaps overlarge points in a passionate anthem for Kantianism, which is nonetheless refreshing. The book has a curious and ingenious premise and much of the discussion about what it is like to be blind is of great interest; the philosophical portion may be less distinguished, but is very enjoyable and more serious-minded, and less academic, than most philosophy.