Perception and Illusion

This volume traces the history of thinking about perception from its early philosophical roots to the modern laboratory. Some of the questions it considers have been asked since antiquity - Is what we see the truth? Are everyone s perceptual experiences the same? What is the nature of infants perception? What kinds of mistakes are made in perceiving? Can perceptual experience be communicated to others? The author sets the groundwork with an explanation of the five senses and how science has come to observe them. He also explores the idea of perceptual error which becomes the lens through which the study of perception is viewed. This examination of perception is described in chapters devoted to historical periods from the Greeks to the present time following themes of adaptation and how the senses are linked to an intricately organized brain which not only helps us perceive what is necessary for survival, but also creates links from the patterns of sensory stimulation to language and thought.The understanding of perception is central to our knowledge of the mind. Yet paradoxically, this understanding was born of centuries of fascination with errors of human perception. Perception and Illusion: Historical Perspectives elegantly retraces this scientific journey, not only in terms of its trials and errors but in its complex relationships with painting and medicine, philosophy and physics.§In this accessible volume, Nicholas Wade surveys over two millennia of scientific inquiry and research, describing the evolution of theories of light, sight, and illusion from early naturalistic observation to our sophisticated present-day experiments. Optics, physiology, and ophthalmology are seen emerging from beneath the burden of tradition and dogma. So, too, do doctors and thinkers studying the senses become practitioners devoted to specialized domains. The Greek foundations of perception: Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy Art and perception before and after the Renaissance: color mixing and linear perspective The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: ocular anatomy meets optical science; the separation of sight from light Perception and behavior: illusions and the roots of psychology in the nineteenth century; the fragmentation of the senses; harnessing space and time Perceptual innovations in the twentieth century: from infant vision through visual physiology to virtual reality.§Perception and Illusion: Historical Perspectives is illuminating reading for students of the history of psychology, optics, and medicine, and provides insights into the history and progress of science. In addition to charting these visual milestones, Wade reminds the reader in an articulate manner of perceptual controversies including some of the most basic ones that have yet to be resolved.