Perception and Illusion : Historical Perspectives

Our contact with the world is through perception, and therefore the study of the process is of obvious importance and signi?cance. For much of its long history, the study of perception has been con?ned to natural- tic observation. Nonetheless, the phenomena considered worthy of note have not been those that nurture our survival―the veridical features of perception―but the oddities or departures from the common and c- monplace accuracies of perception. With the move from the natural world to the laboratory the oddities of perception multiplied, and they received ever more detailed scrutiny. My general intention is to examine the interpretations of the perc- tual process and its errors throughout history. The emphasis on errors of perception might appear to be a narrow approach, but in fact it enc- passes virtually all perceptual research from the ancients until the present. The constancies of perception have been taken for granted whereas - partures from constancies (errors or illusions) have fostered fascination.

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 thereader in an articulate manner of perceptual controversies―including some of the most basic ones―that have yet to be resolved.