Abstract
Galen (2nd century A.D.) upon whose anatomical and physiological investigations the Arabs largely depended and whose theoretical insights thus exerted considerable influence, rejected the atomist theory of vision according to which material copies or eidola (compared by Lucretius to the cauls calves cast off at birth from the surface of their bodies1) penetrate the eye. The main reason for his rejection was the consideration that large eidola (e.g. of mountains) could not possibly enter through the small pupil of the eye and impress their real magnitude upon the sense of vision.2 But this argument is relevant only if prior transformation (e.g., diminution) or else serial processing of the eidola must be regarded as barred by fundamental theoretical reasons. Clearly, the identity theory turns out to be the common presupposition.
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References
Lucretius, De rerum natura, R.E. Latham (tr.), Penguin Books (1951), pp. 131–2.
De placitis 7, pp. 615,15–616,4(K 5, 618).
De placitis 7, 642, 12–3 (K 5, 642). The Stoic model returns in Descartes, mechanistic analogy of the instantaneous propagation of light in a rigorously incompressible medium.
De placitis 7, p. 641,11–2 (K 5,641). Cf. S. Sambursky (1959), p. 127.
De placitis 7, pp. 641,13–642,13 (K 5, 641–2). Also cf. S. Sambursky (1959), p. 127.
De aspectibus, AA. Björnbo and S. Vogl (eds.), Prop. 7, p. 9.
Digby 91,16th century, fols. 66–80, Alkindus de radiis stellarum; alternative titles: De radiis stellicis, or De radiis stellatis; cf. Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, (Columbia University Press, 1923), Vol. I, p. 643.
L. Thorndike (1923), p. 646.
Cf. Graziella Federici Vescovini, Studi sulla prospettiva medievale, (Turin, 1965), pp. 44–7; David C. Lindberg (1971), pp. 470–1.
Cf. Matthias Schramm, ‘Zur Entwicklung der physiologischen Optik in der Arabischen Literatur’, Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, 43, 4 (1959), pp. 294–6. For the following account cf. T)e Compositione Oculi, Forma et Situ’, ASP I, cap. 4, pp. 3–7.
Slightly adapted from The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, v, i, iii, John H. Bridges
(ed.), (Oxford, 1897; Frankfurt/Main, 1964), ii, 24.
Cf. De anima 2, 12, 424a 17–23.
Cf. D.C. Lindberg (1976), p. 71; A.I. Sabra (1978), pp. 166–8.
Cf. A. Lejeune (1948), pp. 54–5. Also cf. above p. 34. It is interesting to compare with this theory the modern 19th century controversy surrounding the theory of the anatomical identity of the so-called corresponding points on the sensitive surfaces of the two retinas (cf. ch. DC, sec. 3–4).
Optics I, 6; MS Fatdh 3212, fol. 97b; tr. by A.I. Sabra (1978), p. 181; ASP I, cap. 5, 20, pp. 12–3.
Optics, II, 2; MS Fatih 3213, fol. 7a-b; tr. A.I. Sabra (1978), pp. 165–6; ASP II, cap. 1,4, p. 26.
Cf. Optics I, 6; MS Fatih 3212, fol. 90b; tr. A.I. Sabra (1978), p. 182; ASP I, cap. 5, 18, p. 10, lines 27–30.
Cf. e.g. ASP VII, cap. 2, 8, p. 241. Also cf. D.C. Lindberg, The Cause of Refraction in Medieval Optics’, Brit J. Hist Sci 4, (1968–69), pp. 25–9.
Cf. A.C. Crombie (1967), p. 54.
Slightly adapted from The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, v, i, vii, John H. Bridges (ed.), (Oxford, 1897; Frankfurt/Main, 1964) ii, 48.
For Alhazen’s psychology of visual perception cf. Hans Bauer, ‘Die Psychologie Alhazens auf Grund von Alhazens Optik dargestellt’, in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, Vol. X, no. 5, (Münster, 1911).
De multiplicatione specierum 1, 1, in The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, J.H. Bridges (ed.), 2 vols. (Frankfurt/Main, 1964), 2, 407–10.
Opus Majus, 4, 2, cap. 1, J.H. Bridges (ed.) 1, p. 111; tr. in E. Grant (ed.), A Source Book in Medieval Science, (Cambridge, 1974), p. 393.
De scientia perspectiva 1, 5, cap. 1; Opus Majus, 5, J.H. Bridges (ed.) 2, pp. 30–2.
Cf. I. Lakatos (1971), pp. 91–135.
Cf. Edgar Zilsel, ‘The Origins of William Gilbert’s Scientific Method’, J. Hist. Ideas 2 (1941), pp. 1–32.
Witelo and Theodoric of Freiberg had studied the colored forms projected onto a screen by light refracted by a crystal. Cf. A.C. Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100–1700, (Oxford, 1953, 1962), pp. 216–8
A.C. Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100–1700, 1953, 230–1 (Witelo)
A.C. Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100–1700, 1953, 248–50 (Theodoric of Freiberg).
Such phenomena had been studied, i.a., by Grosseteste and by Roger Bacon. Cf. E. Rosen, The Invention of Eyeglasses’, J. Hist. Med. XI, (1956), pp. 13–53.
E. Rosen, The Invention of Eyeglasses’, J. Hist. Med. XI, (1956), pp. 183–218.
Illustration taken from Gregor Reisch, Margarita Philosophica, (Strasbourg, 1504).
Leonardo da Vinci, Of the Eye, in D.S. Strong, Leonardo da Vinci on the Eye, The MS D… Translated into English and Annotated with a Study of Leonardo’s Theories of Optics, (Ph. D. diss., UCLA, 1967), p. 53
also in ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Of the Eye’, Nino Ferrero (tr.), Am. J. Ophthalm., ser. 3, 35 (1952), p. 509.
Leonardo da Vinci, Literary Works, J.P. Richter and I.A. Richter (eds./trs.), (Oxford, 1939), I, 144.
Also in I.A. Richter (ed./tr.), Selections from the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, (Oxford, 1952), p. 116.
D.S. Strong (1967), p. 56; N. Ferrero (1952), p. 510.
Leonardo da Vinci, Of the Eye, 26, in D.S. Strong (1967), p. 56.
PL pp. 28–9.
The Photismi de Lumine of Maurolycus: A Chapter in Late Medieval Optics, H. Crew (tr.), (New York, 1940), pp. 116–8. This work will be referred to below as PL.
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Meyering, T.C. (1989). The Identity Postulate at Work in Various Research Programs in the Theory of Vision During Late Antiquity and During the Arab and European Middle Ages. In: Historical Roots of Cognitive Science. Synthese Library, vol 208. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2423-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2423-9_4
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