These sensory worlds have their very own

boundaries they do not show any transition. There is no visual

experience which from a phenomenological point of view has
anything in common with an acoustic or a haptic experience.
There is no tone or association of tones that could be compared
with a colour or any visual spatial structure.
;

is characteristic that
blind children have to be specially taught to examine objects
accurately by touch.show very interest in form.

It

Two

fundamental tendencies are operative in the mode of

perceiving objects. The result of one of these represents the
figure-image [i.e., the form), the other one the organisation of
the whole in its geometrical connections [i.e., the structure).^

We
as

therefore mean by theform of an object the unity of its parts

emerging out of the process of being perceived, a unity leading
to complete fusion of its elements in the total impression.

As

distinct

from the observation of the form, the investigation

is an analytical process it is directed towards

of the structure

differentiation, the stressing of the parts. It is not the content

of the perception, but the construction of the object which

be attended to.

is

to

the structural apprehension of objects always presupposes

An amorphous, formless thing cannot be

apprehended structurally nor can it be split into its component
the element of form.

The

parts.

we want

another person a solid

we are compelled to direct his attention
to the structure. After being told that on the narrower side of
the temple there is a flight of steps erected out of mighty freestones,
If

to

convey

impression of what

to

we

see,

carrying fluted columns, and that these columns carry an

entablature arranged and ornamented in such and such a way,
etc., we are able to form a fairly clear idea of that portico

might go further and describe, say, the structure of the individual

parts, the arrangement and allocation of the columns. When we
are told that the columns are placed at a distance from one another
corresponding to one and a half times their lower diameter, that
they taper gradually, that on top ofthem the epistyle comes forward
in a gently swinging line, our knowledge of the structural
features of the temple

and

the architectonic details of

its

becomes much richer and renders our conception

of the impression conveyed by the building far more clear
and concrete. It is obvious that the knowledge of the structure
can only help us to gain an impression of form provided we have

component

parts

already seen similar structures either in reality or in illustrations.

The

structure of a thing

is

made up of

dependent and intimately interconnected structural strata which

can never be integrated into a visible unity.

Here
the structure, the spatial arrangement, and mutual relationship of
the parts

have

to

be brought into consciousness intentionally by

strenuous work.

structure emphasis may either be laid on

the sequence " form to structure " or on " structure to form ".

The

form-structure relation is mostly predominant in the field of

not lead to a total form. So the person working on tactile lines

(the blind man) does not attempt to arrive at a synthetic apprehension
of form.

Theoretical considerations and

me

see the

my

experience, therefore,

make

most important difference between visual and haptic

perception of objects in the fact that our visual sense is directed

to the perception of form, while our sense of touch is mainly directed
to the recognition of structure.DETAILS ARBITRARIOS

The

very nature of that

subtle kinematic function of the organ of touch implies that the
mastering of the haptic world of forms is necessarily connected
with the principle of successive progress. Without successive
tactile activity neither the relatively independent parts of the

FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS OF HAPTICS 95

object nor the details

which may be relevant to the form

will

emerge.

The

process of successive progress manifests

activity as well.

When

itself in

blind persons are asked

the reproductive

what

is

present to their mind when they accurately picture a chair, for

example, the process of successive perception seems to repeat itself.
They often mention the following sequence of ideas right arm
of the chair, left arm, seat, back, legs.^
:

Buffon has already called the tactile sense the sens geometrique.

6.

The Tendency to Establish Types and Schemata

Every

visual object,

provided

it is

fairly well isolated

and

within a range of distance corresponding to normal vision, is

FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS OF HAPTIGS 1 05

apprehended as a formal entity. If we see on a table five forks

differing from one another, they will all be apprehended as forks
of different sizes and proportions, although they all represent
fundamentally the same formal type.

The

typifying tendency

is

deliberately encouraged in the teaching

of the blind. As the teachers of the blind start from the

assumption that their pupils are on the whole unable to gain a

image of objects, they try in the object-lessons to give them

an approach to the objects by starting from their structure and
from the tectonic pattern. In that endeavour they start by
total

up the object into simple geometric forms. This didactic

method explains why, in the process of perceiving objects, the
splitting

on the look-out for elemental forms, of which

they can establish abstract ideas and why in copying models they
sometimes make exclusive use of elemental forms. Thus three
young pupils, born blind, built the following churches (see Fig. 5)
out of two or three cubes and one pyramid.
It is thus clear that tactile examination of objects
blind are always

The Tendency to Transpose

The sighted and the blind who have lost their sight at a later

period of life remain unsatisfied with the vague and rather undifferentiated
haptic impressions of form. We, who are accustomed
to the richly differentiated

and individualised visual

The

process of transposition may take place in either of two

in the majority of cases, no immediate transposition in the

ways
strict

sense of the

word is performed with objects known

individually

or generically, but the tactile process evokes by means

of association a more or less adequate and comprehensive visual
object-image. Whenever we touch, say, a pipe with a long stem,

image of a known pipe or a visual pattern may emerge

the visual
into

our consciousness by way of association and

the tactile object.

may

represent

need hardly be said that in such cases we are not dealing

with a transposition of haptic contents, but with the reproduction
of visual images of objects or forms.
The term transposition, taken strictly {i.e., the " optification" of
haptic data), only applies, if one purposely tries to visualise a tactile
It

object, that is, transpose it into the visual sphere. It

to ascertain experimentally to

is

possible

with the transposition of haptic impressions, but

with a fixation by means of words and abstract ideas of tactile

and kinetic contents, a fixation which tries, by means of its abstract
character, to bridge the gap between the two sensory spheres.
The concept is the link by means of which the haptic form is brought into
relation with the visualfigure.

and a very important one,

though not genuine. There are

This, too, is a kind of transposition,

ANLISIS Y LENGUAJE

In examining the process of structural analysis we realise that

the structural elements are not merely grasped as perceptions,
but that they become at the same time fixed in verbal terms.
Thus the subject of an experiment when shown an unusual

On

object characterised the structure as follows

globe from it emerges a tapering
:

top there

is

round bar then there follows

;

immediately that the verbal

fixation of what has been perceived is only the natural result of
the purposive perceptual process. For the cognitive purpose, as
related to structure, presupposes verbal fixation.

examined object is therefore nearly impossible. A

born blind, exclaimed on handling a sculpture of an
animal, which was most impressive from a visual point of view
haptically
subject,
:

how the parts are connected to each other,

He was unable to visualise how the
simple contours ran and how

" I cannot understand

everything runs apart."

IMPORTANTE PARA EMPEZAR

unable

to visualise

how

the

simple contours ran and how they formed one whole. Whenever
anyone born blind is asked to reproduce an object in clay, he
has to construct the whole object from the separate parts, and so
the contour of the object as a whole becomes lost. The copy
reflects the development of haptic object-perception and formperception,
but not the appearance of the object. (This point
will be discussed in detail in Part II.)

further difficulty is connected with the successive character

of the haptic process. The succession in time would

degree as good as the visual one.

We

do not doubt that the blind are able to get haptically clear

impressions of the form of objects when these are of a simple

structure. Nor do we wish to deny the blind the ability to unite
simple forms or elements of form into higher entities by active

What we do deny is the assertion, which is decisive

whole psychology of the blind, that it should be possible,
by purely haptic perception, to get a homogeneous idea of the
form of objects which differ from well-known or less complicated
synthesis.
for the

spatial figures.
I

am

quite willing to admit that irrefutable empirical grounds

for such a denial are
IMPORTANTE

want

to

draw

attention to a special feature

which

consider to be of considerable importance in the constructive

creation of form
namely, the small influence of " general tendencies
" in the field of Haptics.

in the haptic sphere

may

also

come

into being

basis of a spontaneous impression of proportion.

The

on the