The natural and the normative : theories of spatial perception from Kant to Helmholtz / Gary Hatfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hatfield, Gary C. (Gary Carl)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Space perception--History.

Space perception.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 366 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©1990.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Gary Hatfield examines theories of spatial perception from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century and provides a detailed analysis of the works of Kant and Helmholtz, who adopted opposing stances on whether central questions about spatial perception were amenable to natural-scientific treatment. At stake were the proper understanding of the relationships among sensation, perception, and experience, and the proper methodological framework for investigating the mental activities of judgment, understanding, and reason issues which remain at the core of philosophical psychology and cognitive science. Hatfield presents these important issues as living philosophies of science that shape and are shaped by actual research programs, creating a complex and fascinating picture of the entire nineteenth-century battle between nativism and empiricism. His examination of Helmholtz's work in physiological optics and epistemology is a tour de force.

Notes:

"A Bradford book."

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

0-262-27505-8

0-585-21034-9

OCLC:

44964398