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CATEGORIES:Cabinet of Natural History
SUMMARY:Pierre Gassendi and monocular vision - Guillermo W
 illis (Warburg Institute)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240122T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240122T140000
UID:TALK210688AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/210688
DESCRIPTION:In 1637\, the French philosopher Pierre Gassendi (
 1592–1655) sought to console Galileo Galilei\, who
  had recently lost sight in one eye\, by proposing
  an unconventional idea: that distinct visual perc
 eption arises solely from the retinal image of a s
 ingle eye. Between the 1630s and 1650s\, Gassendi 
 drew upon Epicurus's theory of matter to erect a n
 atural philosophical framework that explained sens
 orial qualities only in terms of atoms and the voi
 d. This presentation delves into Gassendi's accoun
 t of the causes of our perception of two visual qu
 alities\, magnitude and distance\, as affected by 
 monocular vision. I examine two of his proposition
 s: first\, that the left and right eyes possess di
 ssimilar powers in the apprehension of visual spec
 ies\; and second\, contrary to conventional knowle
 dge\, that the visual axes of both eyes run parall
 el through the visual field rather than converging
  at a focal point.\n\nBy analysing Gassendi's corr
 espondence with Galileo Galilei and Fortunio Licet
 i\, along with the portrayal of visual qualities t
 hat the French philosopher delivered in his later 
 works\, this talk explores the humanistic foundati
 ons of these stances on monocular vision and expla
 ins their significance towards validating visual p
 erception in the seventeenth century\, amidst the 
 epistemological challenges resulting from the cont
 emporary astronomical advances and the emergence o
 f Cartesian optics.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philoso
 phy of Science
CONTACT:Tom Banbury
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