Smith, A. Mark (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Physical Details: 480 pp.; ill.; bibl.; index
Language: English
From its inception in Greek antiquity, the science of optics was aimed primarily at explaining sight and accounting for why things look as they do. By the end of the seventeenth century, however, the analytic focus of optics had shifted to light: its fundamental properties and such physical behaviors as reflection, refraction, and diffraction. This dramatic shift---which A. Mark Smith characterizes as the “Keplerian turn”---lies at the heart of this fascinating and pioneering study. Breaking from previous scholarship that sees Johannes Kepler as the culmination of a long-evolving optical tradition that traced back to Greek antiquity via the Muslim Middle Ages, Smith presents Kepler instead as marking a rupture with this tradition, arguing that his theory of retinal imaging, which was published in 1604, was instrumental in prompting the turn from sight to light. Kepler's new theory of sight, Smith reveals, thus takes on true historical significance: by treating the eye as a mere light-focusing device rather than an image-producing instrument---as traditionally understood---Kepler's account of retinal imaging helped spur the shift in analytic focus that eventually led to modern optics. A sweeping survey, From Sight to Light is poised to become 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.
...MoreReview Gábor Á. Zemplén (2020) Review of "From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 237-240).
Review James Everest (2018) Review of "From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 705-706).
Review Tawrin Baker (2016) Review of "From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (pp. 115-120).
Review Margaret Gaida (2016) Review of "From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics". Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 375-377).
Review Raz Chen-Morris (2017) Review of "From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics". Journal for the History of Astronomy (pp. 122-124).
Review Katrien Vanagt (2016) Review of "From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 616-617).
Review Matthias Schemmel (2015) Review of "From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics". Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 126-128).
Review Stephan Gregory (2016) Review of "From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics". Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (pp. 185-186).
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