Ptolemy and the Foundations of Ancient Mathematical Optics

Ptolemy and the Foundations of Ancient Mathematical Optics
Author: A. Mark Smith
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1999
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9780871698933

Contents: (I) Ancient Theories of Visual Perception: The Physics of Vision; The Physiology of Vision; The Psychology of Visual Perception; (II) Optics Proper: Analysis of Direct Vision: The Visual Cone; The Visual Perception of Physical Space; Binocular Vision; (III) Catoptrics: Analysis of Vision by Reflected Rays: The Law of Equal Angles; Multiple Reflections and Multiple Images; The Principles of Image-Location; Image-Formation and Distortion; Visual Effecs from Composite Mirrors; (IV) Dioptrics: Analysis of Vision by Deflected Rays: Observation and Explanation of the Phenomenon; Practical Application: The Problem of Atmospheric Refraction; Image-Location as a Function of the Shape of the Refracting Surface; Size-Distortion; (V) Analysis of the Rainbow and of Burning Mirrors; (VI) Conclusion. Illus.

Sourcebook in the Mathematics of Ancient Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean

Sourcebook in the Mathematics of Ancient Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean
Author: Victor J. Katz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 720
Release: 2024-09-17
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0691202818

"In recent decades, there has been extensive research on Greek mathematics that has considerably enlarged the scope of this area of inquiry. Traditionally, "Greek mathematics" has referred to the axiomatic work of Archimedes, Apollonius, and others in the first three centuries BCE. However, there is a wide body of mathematical work that appeared in the eastern Mediterranean during the time it was under Greek influence (from approximately 400 BCE to 600 CE), which remains under-explored in the existing scholarship. This sourcebook provides an updated look at Greek mathematics, bringing together classic Greek texts with material from lesser-known authors, as well as newly uncovered texts that have been omitted in previous scholarship. The book adopts a broad scope in defining mathematical practice, and as such, includes fields such as music, optics, and architecture. It includes important sources written in languages other than Greek in the eastern Mediterranean area during the period from 400 BCE to 600 CE, which show some influence from Greek culture. It also includes passages that highlight the important role mathematics played in philosophy, pedagogy, and popular culture. The book is organized topically; chapters include arithmetic, plane geometry, astronomy, and philosophy, literature, and education. Within each chapter, the (translated) texts are organized chronologically. The book weaves together ancient commentary on classic Greek works with the works themselves to show how the understanding of mathematical ideas changed over the centuries"--

Light, heat and sound in Robert Grosseteste’s Physics

Light, heat and sound in Robert Grosseteste’s Physics
Author: Amelia Carolina Sparavigna
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 106
Release: 2016-11-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1326871536

Robert Grosseteste was one of the most prominent thinkers of the Thirteenth Century. Philosopher and scientist, he was Bishop of Lincoln from 1235 to 1253. He was heavily influenced by Augustine, whose thought permeates his writings, but he also made extensive use of the thought of Aristotle, Avicenna and Averroes. Grosseteste's physics is the science of Nature, of which we will discuss in this book. This science is quite different from the Galilean physics. However, in the scientific treatises written by Grosseteste, we find some features preparing the born of the new physics that produced the Galilean revolution and the Newtonian mechanics. This is the reason why Robert Grosseteste, English statesman, philosopher and scientist, is defined by Alistair Cameron Crombie as the real founder of the tradition of the scientific thought in Oxford. In this book we will propose a discussion of this Grosseteste's physics, in particular that which in described in his treatises on light, heat and sound.

On the Genealogy of Color

On the Genealogy of Color
Author: Zed Adams
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2015-10-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317401891

In On the Genealogy of Color, Zed Adams argues for a historicized approach to conceptual analysis, by exploring the relevance of the history of color science for contemporary philosophical debates about color realism. Adams contends that two prominent positions in these debates, Cartesian anti-realism and Oxford realism, are both predicated on the assumption that the concept of color is ahistorical and unrevisable. Adams takes issue with this premise by offering a philosophical genealogy of the concept of color. This book makes a significant contribution to recent debates on philosophical methodology by demonstrating the efficacy of using the genealogical method to explore philosophical concepts, and will appeal to philosophers of perception, philosophers of mind, and metaphysicians.

Geminos's Introduction to the Phenomena

Geminos's Introduction to the Phenomena
Author: James Evans
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0691187150

This is the first complete English translation of Geminos's Introduction to the Phenomena--one of the most important and interesting astronomical works of its type to have survived from Greek antiquity. Gracefully and charmingly written, Geminos's first-century BC textbook for beginning students of astronomy can now be read straight through with understanding and enjoyment by a wider audience than ever before. James Evans and Lennart Berggren's accurate and readable translation is accompanied by a thorough introduction and commentary that set Geminos's work in its historical, scientific, and philosophical context. This book is generously illustrated with diagrams from medieval manuscripts of Geminos's text, as well as drawings and photographs of ancient astronomical instruments. It will be of great interest to students of the history of science, to classicists, and to professional and amateur astronomers who seek to learn more about the origins of their science. Geminos provides a clear view of Greek astronomy in the period between Hipparchos and Ptolemy, treating such subjects as the zodiac, the constellations, the theory of the celestial sphere, lunar cycles, and eclipses. Most significantly, Geminos gives us the earliest detailed discussion of Babylonian astronomy by a Greek writer, thus offering valuable insight into the cross-cultural transmission of astronomical knowledge in antiquity.

Sight, Touch, and Imagination in Byzantium

Sight, Touch, and Imagination in Byzantium
Author: Roland Betancourt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2018-04-12
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1108424740

Studies the interrelation of sight, touch, and the imagination in ancient and medieval Greek theories of perception and cognition.

The Arrow of Love

The Arrow of Love
Author: Dana E. Stewart
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2003
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780838754801

In particular, optical imagery and paradigms afforded poets a new approach to the roles of the languishing male and his powerful beloved."--Jacket.

Classical Antiquity and the Cinematic Imagination

Classical Antiquity and the Cinematic Imagination
Author: Martin M. Winkler
Publisher:
Total Pages: 554
Release: 2024-02-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1009396730

This book aims to enhance our appreciation of the modernity of the classical cultures and, conversely, of cinema's debt to ancient Greece and Rome. It explores filmic perspectives on the ancient verbal and visual arts and applies what is often referred to as pre-cinema and what Sergei Eisenstein called cinematism: that paintings, statues, and literature anticipate modern visual technologies. The motion of bodies depicted in static arts and the vividness of epic ecphrases point to modern features of storytelling, while Plato's Cave Allegory and Zeno's Arrow Paradox have been related to film exhibition and projection since the early days of cinema. The book additionally demonstrates the extensive influence of antiquity on an age dominated by moving-image media, as with stagings of Odysseus' arrow shot through twelve axes or depictions of the Golden Fleece. Chapters interpret numerous European and American silent and sound films and some television productions and digital videos.

Influences

Influences
Author: Mary Quinlan-McGrath
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2013-02-20
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0226922855

Today few would think of astronomy and astrology as fields related to theology. Fewer still would know that physically absorbing planetary rays was once considered to have medical and psychological effects. But this was the understanding of light radiation held by certain natural philosophers of early modern Europe, and that, argues Mary Quinlan-McGrath, was why educated people of the Renaissance commissioned artworks centered on astrological themes and practices. Influences is the first book to reveal how important Renaissance artworks were designed to be not only beautiful but also—perhaps even primarily—functional. From the fresco cycles at Caprarola, to the Vatican’s Sala dei Pontefici, to the Villa Farnesina, these great works were commissioned to selectively capture and then transmit celestial radiation, influencing the bodies and minds of their audiences. Quinlan-McGrath examines the sophisticated logic behind these theories and practices and, along the way, sheds light on early creation theory; the relationship between astrology and natural theology; and the protochemistry, physics, and mathematics of rays. An original and intellectually stimulating study, Influences adds a new dimension to the understanding of aesthetics among Renaissance patrons and a new meaning to the seductive powers of art.

Ptolemy's Philosophy

Ptolemy's Philosophy
Author: Jacqueline Feke
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2020-10-13
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 069121039X

A stimulating intellectual history of Ptolemy's philosophy and his conception of a world in which mathematics reigns supreme The Greco-Roman mathematician Claudius Ptolemy is one of the most significant figures in the history of science. He is remembered today for his astronomy, but his philosophy is almost entirely lost to history. This groundbreaking book is the first to reconstruct Ptolemy’s general philosophical system—including his metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics—and to explore its relationship to astronomy, harmonics, element theory, astrology, cosmology, psychology, and theology. In this stimulating intellectual history, Jacqueline Feke uncovers references to a complex and sophisticated philosophical agenda scattered among Ptolemy’s technical studies in the physical and mathematical sciences. She shows how he developed a philosophy that was radical and even subversive, appropriating ideas and turning them against the very philosophers from whom he drew influence. Feke reveals how Ptolemy’s unique system is at once a critique of prevailing philosophical trends and a conception of the world in which mathematics reigns supreme. A compelling work of scholarship, Ptolemy’s Philosophy demonstrates how Ptolemy situated mathematics at the very foundation of all philosophy—theoretical and practical—and advanced the mathematical way of life as the true path to human perfection.