In the Eye's Mind : : Vision and the Helmholtz-Hering Controversy / / R. S. Turner.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton Legacy Lib. eBook Package 1980-1999
• VerfasserIn: Turner, R. S.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2014]; ©1994
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Legacy Library ; 227
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (358 p.) :; 8 halftones 29 line illus.

One of the most persistent controversies of modern science has dealt with human visual perception. It erupted in Germany during the 1860s as a dispute between physiologists Hermann von Helmholtz, Ewald Hering, and their schools. Well into the twentieth century these groups warred over the origins of our capacity to perceive space, over the retinal mechanisms that mediate color sensations, and over the role of mind, experience, and inference in vision. Here R. Steven Turner explores the impassioned exchanges of those rival schools, both to illuminate the clash of theory and to explore the larger role of controversy in the development of science. Controversy, he suggests, is constitutive of scientific change, and he uses the Helmholtz-Hering dispute to illustrate how polemics and tacit negotiation shape evolving theoretical stances.Turner focuses on the arguments and issues of the dispute, issues that ranged from the interpretation of color blindness and optical illusions to the therapeutic practices of clinical ophthalmology. As well, he focuses on the personalities, institutions, disciplinary structures, and methodological commitments that shaped the dispute, including the schools' rhetorical strategies. He explores the incommensurability of the protagonists' viewpoints and examines the reception of the theories and the changing fortunes of the schools. Finally, Turner traces the controversy into the twentieth century, where the issues continue to inform the study of vision today.Originally published in 1994.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Part One. INTRODUCTION -- Chapter One. Introduction -- Chapter Two. Physiological Optics from Wheatstone to Helmholtz -- Part Two. THE PROTAGONISTS -- Chapter Three. Helmholtz on Spatial Perception -- Chapter Four. Hering on Spatial Perception -- Chapter Five. The Nativist-Empiricist Controversy Begins -- Chapter Six. Helmholtz on Light and Color -- Chapter Seven. Hering on Light and Color -- Part Three. THE WIDER CONTROVERSY -- Chapter Eight. Core Sets and Partisans -- Chapter Nine. The Nativist-Empiricist Debate, 1870-1925 -- Chapter Ten. Color Vision Controversies, 1875-90 -- Chapter Eleven. Color Vision Controversies, 1890-1915 -- Chapter Twelve. The Roots of Incommensurability -- Chapter Thirteen. Controversy and Disciplinary Structure -- Part Four. CONCLUSION -- Chapter Fourteen. In Search of Denouement: The Twentieth Century -- Appendix -- Notes -- References and Abbreviations -- Index