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From sight to light : the passage from ancient to modern optics
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From sight to light : the passage from ancient to modern optics

by A. Mark Smith

This history of optics traces the transition from explaining vision to analysing the physical properties of light. It identifies the 1604 theory of retinal imaging as a pivotal shift that redefined the eye and laid the foundations for modern scientific thought.

Accession 11561 ISBN 9780226174761 Publisher University of Chicago Press
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Decorative Arts Education Mathematics Philosophy Psychology Science Social Sciences
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From sight to light : the passage from ancient to modern optics
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vernon_slug
from-sight-to-light-the-passage-from-ancient-to-modern-optics-a-mark-smith

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From Sight to Light traces the development of optics from Greek antiquity to the later seventeenth century. It has long been held that Ibn al-Haytham, or Alhacen, laid the foundations of modern optics on the ruins of ancient optics, thus paving the way for Kepler. A. Mark Smith provocatively argues instead that far from overthrowing ancient optics, in which science was concerned with the act of seeing, Alhacen perfected it by solidifying its theoretical and methodological foundations. In the process, he forged a tight connection between light-theory and sight-theory. By severing this tie and forcing a radical reconsideration of both the physics of light and the psychology of visual perception, it was Kepler, Smith shows, who heralded modern optics. A sweeping survey of our fascination with seeing, From Sight to Light is poised to replace David C. Lindberg's classicTheories of Vision from Al-kindi to Kepler (Chicago, 1976) as the standard reference for historians of optics as well as those interested more broadly in the history of science, the history of art, and cultural and intellectual history.

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)
A. Mark Smith
tags→ tags
Science, Psychology, Philosophy, Physical sciences, Physics, Life, Cognition, Visual perception, Perception, Philosophical anthropology, Optical instruments, Physical instruments, Scientific apparatus and instruments, Research -- Equipment and supplies, Soul, Mirrors, Optics, Colour (Philosophy), Optics -- History, Reflection (Optics), Refraction
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Aristotle (Greek, b.384 BCE, d.322 BCE), Ptolemy (Greek, b.Circa 100 CE, d.Circa 170 CE), Plato (Greek, b.428 BCE, d.247 BCE), Aristotle (Greek, b.384 BCE, d.322 BCE), Johannes Kepler (German, b.1571, d.1630), Ibn al-Haytham (b.965 CE, d.1040 CE), Euclid (Greek), Rene Descartes (French, b.1596, d.1650), Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, b.1452, d.1519)
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