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The physiological and psychological grounds of Ptolemy's visual theory: Some methodological considerations
Author(s) -
Smith A. Mark
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6696(199822)34:3<231::aid-jhbs1>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - ptolemy's table of chords , perception , interpretation (philosophy) , frame (networking) , geometrical optics , focus (optics) , physical optics , epistemology , computer science , cognitive science , physics , psychology , philosophy , optics , mathematics , geometry , telecommunications , programming language
Until fairly recently, Ptolemy's Optics has been regarded as an exercise in what would today be called physical optics, its focus purportedly upon ray‐geometry. In terms of methodology, therefore, the Optics has generally been regarded as a model of applied mathematics. The purpose of this essay is to show that this textbook interpretation is not only excessively restrictive but fundamentally misguided. As will become clear in the course of this essay, in fact, Ptolemy's primary goal in the Optics was to frame a comprehensive and coherent account of visual perception, not to explain the physics of radiation. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.