Historical Roots of Cognitive Science : The Rise of a Cognitive Theory of Perception From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century

Cognitive science, in Howard Gardner's words, has a relatively short history but a very long past. While its short history has been the subject of quite a few studies published in recent years, the current book focuses instead on its very long past. It explores the emergence of the conceptual framework that was necessary to make the rise of modem cognitive science possible in the first place. Over the long course of the history of the theory of perception and of cognition, various conceptual breakthroughs can be discerned that have contributed significantly to the conception of the mind as a physical symbol system with intricate representational capacities and unimaginably rich computational resources. In historical retrospect such conceptual transitions-seemingly sudden and unannounced-are typically foreshadowed in the course of enduring research programs that serve as slowly developing theoretical con­ straint structures gradually narrowing down the apparent solution space for the scientific problems at hand. Ultimately the fundamental problem is either resolved to the satisfaction of the majority of researchers in the area of investigation, or else-and much more commonly-one or more of the major theoretical constraints is abandoned or radically modified, giving way to entirely new theoretical vistas. In the history of the theory of perception this process can be witnessed at vari­ ous important junctures. Front Matter....Pages i-xix Introduction....Pages 1-13 Reconstruction of the History of Medieval and (Post-) Cartesian Theories of Perception in Terms of the Negative Heuristics of their Respective Research Programs. Basic Epistemological Contrasts....Pages 14-20 The Formation of Competing Optical Traditions in Early and Late Antiquity....Pages 21-36 The Identity Postulate at Work in Various Research Programs in the Theory of Vision During Late Antiquity and During the Arab and European Middle Ages....Pages 37-64 The Mathematization of Physics and the Mechanization of the World-Picture Gradually Prepared in the Development of Medieval Optics Rather Than in that of Terrestrial or Celestial Mechanics....Pages 65-69 Mechanicism and the Rise of an Information Theory of Perception. A Naturalistic Reconstruction of (Post-) Cartesian Epistemology....Pages 70-108 Epistemological Issues Underlying the Nineteenth Century Controversies in Physiological Optics. The Helmholtzian Program....Pages 109-124 The Interplay between Philosophy and Physiology in Helmholtz’s View....Pages 125-148 Helmholtz’s Theory of the Perception of Space....Pages 149-180 Helmholtz’s Theory of Unconscious Inferences....Pages 181-208 The Epistemological Outcome of Helmholtz’s Naturalism. Hypothetical Realism....Pages 209-226 Back Matter....Pages 227-250