Abstract
This chapter outlines the consolidation of the concept of image in optics. We start from classical Greece where scientists suggested several theories for the understanding of vision. Early Hellenic theories provided nonmathematical, qualitative, holistic accounts. The later Hellenistic optics of Euclid refined the holistic conception but suggested the erroneous concept of “active vision” by means of visual rays. Alhazen, a distinguished Arab scholar during the medieval era, split an image into points, each “transmitted” to the eye by a single ray. Further progress in the Renaissance noted the similarity between the eye and the Camera Obscura, but scholars were puzzled by the inverted image in the eye. The solution was due to Kepler, in Germany, who introduced light flux to create an image and understood that human cognition provides the “inversion.” The whole history of optical image—from holistic to light flux created and interpreted by the mind—reconstructs the theory of vision and sheds light on the nature of science. This is through a consideration of the scientific discourse of competing theories, a complex cumulative process, not a simple accretion, but a conceptual change. Research has revealed a similarity of students’ accounts for vision with the old ideas, intromission and extramission, holistic and differential images, and the central role of light rays or light flux. This similarity suggests that historical debate may be included in teaching to remedy common misconceptions and upgrade the meaningful learning of optics.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Science |
Subtitle of host publication | Philosophy, History and Education |
Publisher | Springer Nature |
Pages | 103-144 |
Number of pages | 42 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2021 |
Publication series
Name | Science: Philosophy, History and Education |
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ISSN (Print) | 2520-8594 |
ISSN (Electronic) | 2520-8608 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.