Article ID: CBB001553530

Understandings of Colors: Varieties of Theories in the Color Worlds of the Early Seventeenth Century (2015)

unapi

Dijksterhuis, Fokko Jan (Author)


Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Volume: 20.4-6
Issue: 4 - 6
Pages: 515-535


Publication Date: 2015
Edition Details: Part of a Series: Early Modern Color Worlds
Language: English

In the early seventeenth century, there existed a myriad of theories to account for color phenomena. The status, goal, and content of such accounts differed as well as the range of phenomena they explained. Starting with the journal of Isaac Beeckman (1588--1637), this essay inquires into the features and functions of conceptual reflections upon color experiences. Beeckman played a crucial role in the intellectual development of René Descartes (1596--1650), while at the same time their ideas differed crucially. Early corpuscular conceptions of colors cannot be reduced to the mechanistic variety of Descartes. Moreover, the optical rather than corpuscular features of Descartes's understanding of colors were essential. A stratification of conceptualizations is proposed that is grounded in various problem contexts rather than philosophical doctrines, thus opening a way to interpret the philosophical parts of color worlds in a more diverse way.

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Article Baker, Tawrin; Dupré, Sven; Kusukawa, Sachiko; Leonhard, Karin (2015) Introduction: Early Modern Color World. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 289-307). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001553530/

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Authors & Contributors
Schuster, John A.
Honma, Eio
Dijksterhuis, Fokko Jan
Buchwald, Jed Z.
Baldassarri, Fabrizio
Watanabe, Hiroshi
Journals
科学史研究 Kagakusi Kenkyu (History of Science)
Synthese
Revue d'Histoire des Sciences
Proceedings of the ... International Congress of the History of Science
Nuncius: Annali di Storia della Scienza
Historia Scientiarum: International Journal of the History of Science Society of Japan
Publishers
Springer International Publishing
Springer-Verlag
Springer
Routledge
Hackett Publishing Company
American Philosophical Society
Concepts
Physics
Optics
Color
Light
Mechanics
Mathematics
People
Descartes, René
Beeckman, Isaac
Newton, Isaac
Henricus Reneri
Dietrich von Freiberg
Fermat, Pierre de
Time Periods
17th century
Medieval
13th century
Places
Germany
France
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