Baroque Optics and the Disappearance of the Observer
From Kepler's Optics to Descartes' Doubt
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5306146 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ofer Gal (0000-0002-2858-0137), Raz Chen-Morris, Raz Chen‐morri, Raz Chen‐Morris |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 191-217 |
| Publication date | 2010-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the History of Ideas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5037 • E-ISSN: 1086-3222 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/jhi.0.0076 |
| OpenAlex | W2105768716 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 26 |
Seventeenth-century optics naturalizes the eye while estranging the mind from objects. A mere screen, on which rests a blurry array of light stains, the eye no longer furnishes the observer with genuine re-presentations of visible objects. The intellect is thus compelled to decipher flat images of no inherent epistemic value, accidental effects of a purely causal process, as vague, reversed reflections of wholly independent objects. Reflecting on and trespassing the boundaries between natural and artificial, orderly and disorderly, this optical paradox is a Baroque phenomenon; and it is the origin of Descartes' celebrated doubt---whether we know anything at all
Accidental · Art · Astronomy · Baroque · Epistemology · Geometrical optics · Intellect · Kepler · Literature · Observer (physics · Optics · Phenomenon · Physics · Planet · Quantum mechanics · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Philosophy and Science · History of Science and Medicine · Philosophy
Robert Grosseteste and the origins of experimental science, 1100-1700.
The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza
The Encyclopedia of philosophy
Principles of Philosophy
The Philosophical Writings of Descartes
The Cambridge History of Science
The Philosophical Writings of Descartes
Descartes Embodied
The Cambridge history of Renaissance philosophy
Ptolemy, Alhazen, and Kepler and the Problem of Optical Images
Discipline and Experience
The Order of Things
Images
Inside the Camera Obscura
Simulachrum, species, forma, imago
Keplerian illusions
Descartes and Ancient Skepticism
On True and False Ideas
From Emblems to Diagrams
Scepticism and Science in Descartes
Discourse on Method
The Archaeology of the Inverse Square Law
Art, Optics and History
Getting the Big Picture in Perspectivist Optics
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2019 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |