The Cause and Effect of Milton's Blindness

Debates over Milton's blindness have proceeded for over three centuries and in the last century have included diagnoses put forward by renowned ophthalmologists. A bias toward common explanations for medical problems, however, in combination with insufficient historical knowledge, has led these physicians into lapses of logic and unwarranted conclusions. Their medical judgment has also been influenced by unexamined political biases, especially the unwarranted assumption that literary art occupies a realm separate from and inconsistent with polemical advocacy.