Understandings of Colors: Varieties of Theories in the Color Worlds of the Early Seventeenth Century (2015)
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
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.
...MoreArticle 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).
Similar Citations
Book
Gaukroger, Stephen;
Schuster, John;
Sutton, John;
(2000)
Descartes' Natural Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB000100216/)
Article
Buchwald, Jed Z.;
(2008)
Descartes's Experimental Journey Past the Prism and Through the Invisible World to the Rainbow
(/isis/citation/CBB000774401/)
Article
Honma, Eio;
(2004)
Beeckman between Stevin and Descartes: The Origin of “Paradox of Hydrostatics”
(/isis/citation/CBB000600649/)
Article
Dijksterhuis, Fokko Jan;
(2013)
Jeu de Paume and Jeux de la Raison in Seventeenth-Century Optics
(/isis/citation/CBB001252891/)
Chapter
Osler, Margaret J.;
(2008)
Descartes's Optics: Light, the Eye, and Visual Perception
(/isis/citation/CBB001035292/)
Article
Schuster, John A.;
(2012)
Physico-Mathematics and the Search for Causes in Descartes' Optics---1619--1637
(/isis/citation/CBB001211473/)
Book
Descartes, René;
(2001)
Discourse on Method, Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology
(/isis/citation/CBB000100199/)
Chapter
Malet, Antoni;
(2001)
Descartes and Hobbes on Optical Images
(/isis/citation/CBB000102760/)
Chapter
Dijksterhuis, Fokko Jan;
(2007)
Constructive Thinking: A Case for Dioptrics
(/isis/citation/CBB000774655/)
Article
Heeffer, Albrecht;
(2006)
The Logic of Disguise: Descartes' Discovery of the Law of Refraction
(/isis/citation/CBB000772577/)
Book
Burnett, D. Graham;
(2005)
Descartes and the Hyperbolic Quest: Lens Making Machines and Their Significance in the Seventeenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000773708/)
Book
Damerow, Peter;
Freudenthal, Gideon;
McLaughlin, Peter;
Renn, Jürgen;
(1992)
Exploring the limits of preclassical mechanics: A study of conceptual development in early modern science: Free fall and compounded motion in the work of Descartes, Galileo and Beeckman
(/isis/citation/CBB000041321/)
Book
Fabrizio Baldassarri;
(2024)
René Descartes’s Natural Philosophy and Particular Bodies
(/isis/citation/CBB923571073/)
Chapter
Jed Z. Buchwald;
Anna Marie Roos;
Gideon Manning;
(2023)
Descartes’ Experimental Journey Past the Prism and Through the Invisible World to the Rainbow
(/isis/citation/CBB272897224/)
Article
Honma, Eio;
(1996)
The falling body problem in the collaboration of Beeckman and Descartes. (In Japanese)
(/isis/citation/CBB000074855/)
Article
David Rabouin;
(2016)
Mathesis universalis et algèbre générale dans les Regulae ad directionem ingenii de Descartes
(/isis/citation/CBB100086042/)
Article
John A. Schuster;
(2019)
Pitfalls and Opportunities of Contextual Explanation: The Case of Isaac Beeckman’s Invention of the Mechanical Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB948023502/)
Article
Watanabe, Hiroshi;
(1974 (pub. 1975))
On the divergence of the concept of motion in the collaboration of Beeckman and Descartes
(/isis/citation/CBB000028269/)
Article
Langermann, Y. Tzvi;
(2008)
From My Notebooks: A (The?) Geniza Fragment on Optics
(/isis/citation/CBB000930647/)
Article
Mitchell, Daniel Jon;
(2010)
Reflecting Nature: Chemistry and Comprehensibility in Gabriel Lippmann's “Physical” Method of Photographing Colours
(/isis/citation/CBB001022720/)
Be the first to comment!