The vision of William Porterfield

TY - CHAP

T1 - The vision of William Porterfield

AU - Wade, Nicholas

N1 - © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

PY - 2007/9/25

Y1 - 2007/9/25

N2 - In eighteenth-century Britain, research on vision was conducted in the context of either optics or medicine, and both were influenced by philosophy. These threads were woven together by William Porterfield (ca. 1696–1771) in his essays on eye movements and in his treatise on the eye and vision. The scene for investigating vision was set by Isaac Newton (1642–1727) in the first decade of the century with his Opticks (Newton, 1704). The Newtonian mould was loosened by Thomas Young (1773–1829) in the last decade with his initial observations on vision (Young, 1793). Newton and Young adopted contrasting theories of light; Newton’s (1704) theory was based on its corpuscular properties whereas Young (1800, 1802) provided further evidence (mainly from studies of interference) for its action as a wave. Despite the controversies in physical optics, their studies of visual optics had much in common (Wade, 1998). They examined the image forming properties of the eye similarly and their analyses of errors of refraction were in accord.

AB - In eighteenth-century Britain, research on vision was conducted in the context of either optics or medicine, and both were influenced by philosophy. These threads were woven together by William Porterfield (ca. 1696–1771) in his essays on eye movements and in his treatise on the eye and vision. The scene for investigating vision was set by Isaac Newton (1642–1727) in the first decade of the century with his Opticks (Newton, 1704). The Newtonian mould was loosened by Thomas Young (1773–1829) in the last decade with his initial observations on vision (Young, 1793). Newton and Young adopted contrasting theories of light; Newton’s (1704) theory was based on its corpuscular properties whereas Young (1800, 1802) provided further evidence (mainly from studies of interference) for its action as a wave. Despite the controversies in physical optics, their studies of visual optics had much in common (Wade, 1998). They examined the image forming properties of the eye similarly and their analyses of errors of refraction were in accord.

UR - https://dundee.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=cdi_springer_books_10_1007_978_0_387_70967_3_12&context=PC&vid=44DUN_INST:dun&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Primo%20Central&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Brain,%20Mind,%20and%20Medicine:%20Essays%20in%2018th%20Century%20Neuroscience.%20&offset=10

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/77958138661

U2 - 10.1007/978-0-387-70967-3_12

DO - 10.1007/978-0-387-70967-3_12

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780387709666

SP - 163

EP - 176

BT - Brain, Mind, and Medicine

A2 - Whitaker, Harry

A2 - Smith, C.U.M.

A2 - Finger, Stanley

PB - Springer

CY - New York

ER -