Seeing with the hands: blindness, vision, and touch after Descartes

About the Speaker This special event celebrates Mark Paterson’s newest book, Seeing with the Hands: Blindness, Vision and Touch After Descartes. In his book, Paterson challenges the centrality of vision in philosophy from the enlightenment to the contemporary sciences. Using Seeing in Hands as a launching point, this lecture discusses the problematic historical constructions of blindness by the sighted in terms of the history of disability, and contrasts this with the experiences of those with medico-legal blindness or vision impairment. Georgina Kleege (Berkeley)—a leading scholar and activist in disability studies—is the keynote speaker. The event is held in conjunction with the Disability Studies Research Group.