Popular Lectures on Zoonomia: Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and DiseaseGarnett, Thomas
Science
Popular Lectures on Zoonomia: Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease
Garnett, Thomas
Physiology
Another question concerning vision, which has very much perplexed
philosophers, is this; how comes it that we see objects erect, when
it is well known that their images or pictures on the retina are
inverted? The sagacious Kepler, who first made this discovery, was
the first that endeavoured to explain the cause of it.
The reason he gives for our seeing objects erect, is this, that as
the rays from different points of an object cross each other before
they fall on the retina, we conclude that the impulse we feel upon
the lower part of the retina comes from above; and that the impulse
we feel from the higher part, comes from below. Des Cartes afterwards
gave the same solution of this phenomenon, and illustrated it by the
judgment we form of the position of objects which we feel with our
arms crossed, or with two sticks that cross each other. But this
solution is by no means satisfactory: first, because it supposes our
seeing objects erect to be a deduction from reason, drawn from
certain premises, whereas it seems to be an immediate perception; and
secondly, because all the premises from which this conclusion is
supposed to be drawn, are absolutely unknown to far the greater part
of mankind, and yet they all see objects erect.
Bishop Berkeley, who justly rejects this solution, gives another,
founded on his own principles, in which he is followed by Dr. Smith.
This ingenious writer thinks that the ideas of sight are altogether
unlike those of touch; and since the notions we have of an object by
these different senses, have no similitude, we can learn only by
experience how one sense will be affected, by what, in a certain
manner, affects the other. Thus, finding from experience, that an
object in an erect position, affects the eye in one manner, and that
the same object in an inverted position, affects it in another, we
learn to judge, by the manner in which the eye is affected, whether
the object is erect or inverted. But it is evident that Bishop
Berkeley proceeds upon a capital mistake, in supposing that there is
no resemblance between the extension, figure, and position, which we
see, and that which we perceive by touch. It may be further observed,
that Bishop Berkeley's system, with regard to material things, must
have made him see this question, in a very different light from that
in which it appears to those who do not adopt his system.
In order to give a satisfactory answer to this question, we must
first examine some of the laws of nature, which take place in vision;
for by these the phenomena of vision must be regulated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account