The phenomenological analysis of the hand is a fertile ground to reflect on the dialogue between philosophy and the biomedical sciences. In fact, this analysis highlights the correspondence which exists in human beings between body morphology and symbolic intelligence. In ancient philosophy, there is a confrontation between the mechanicistic thesis by Anaxagoras and the finalistic thesis by Aristotle. Starting from the hand, the argument extends to the role that touch has in relation to the other senses within perception and self-consciousness. The data of developmental psychology and neurosciences confirm that self-consciousness is growing gradually by learning to distinguish between what is own and what is extraneous, thanks to tactile sensations. In contemporary philosophy, we have the confrontation of two views: one is focused on haptic experience which attributes to touch a central role in the perceptive process and in the interpersonal relation, according to a line that goes from Aristotle to Kant and further on to Husserl, Derrida, and Lévinas. The other position considers sight as the more capable faculty to recognize and to imagine: this is the position of Merleau-Ponty who identifies the tangible with the visible. The question emerging from this confrontation—"is it the look that touches or the hand that sees?"—may find a practical reply within cognitive processes of persons suffering from congenital blindness.