Optics of thought: Logic and vision in Müller, Helmholtz, and Frege
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Optics of thought: Logic and vision in Müller, Helmholtz, and Frege
zbMATH Open document ID: 1032.01017
published in: Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic
publication date: 2004-03-04T00:00:00Z
review text: In his writings on logic and the philosophy of mathematics Frege sometimes drew upon similes and metaphors from optics. The author argues that he was knowingly drawing upon a tradition of his time in which logic and optics intersected over questions such as (non-)sensory sources of knowledge. He outlines some of the theories proposed by H. von Helmholtz and Johannes Mueller. A nice footnote about the optician Ernst Abbe, who had supervised Frege's second doctorate, does not tie in with its text on p. 366.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A55
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 03-03
zbMATH DE Number: 1877077
zbMATH Keywords: optics
zbMATH Keywords: H. von Helmholtz
zbMATH Keywords: G. Frege
author: David Charles McCarty
reviewed by: Ivor Grattan-Guinness
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: https://doi.org/10.1305/ndjfl/1038336881
OpenAlex ID: W1972895231
cites work: Q4845514
cites work: Q4783207
cites work: Q3887429
DOI: 10.1305/NDJFL/1038336881
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1877077