The Blind Person's Stick in Weil and Descartes
Hugh G. A. Roberts
Ecokritike August 14, 2026 DOI: 10.17613/93tb8-9jx28 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Cybernetics Ethics Attention Cognition Mystery |
| Key points | Argues that Simone Weil's engagement with the blind person's stick offers unique perspectives on perception as work, as a means of reading universal grace in the environment as solar energy, and as a way for the universe to experience itself in a human incarnation, with ethical and environmental implications paralleled in Bateson's cybernetics. |
Abstract
René Descartes first used the blind person's stick (BPS) as an analogy for perception in his Dioptrics (1637) and it has remained influential ever since, including in studies of '4E cognition'. This article traces how modern thinkers, including Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Gregory Bateson, and present-day cognitive archaeologist Lambros Malafouris, have used the BPS to explore questions of the intermingling of brain, body and environment. Simone Weil's continual engagement with the BPS, from her student dissertation to reflections in notebooks and essays close to the end of her short life, provides unique perspectives on the BPS through work, as a means of reading universal grace in the environment in the form of solar energy, and for the universe to experience itself as the BPS in a human incarnation. Ethical and environmental ramifications of the BPS emerge through Weil and unintended parallels in Bateson's cybernetics.