Optics of thought: Logic and vision in Müller, Helmholtz, and Frege

DOI10.1305/NDJFL/1038336881MaRDI QIDQ1860972zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors David Charles McCarty

Publication date 4 March 2004

Published in Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1305/ndjfl/1038336881

zbMATH Keywords

G. FregeH. von Helmholtzoptics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55) History of mathematical logic and foundations (03-03)

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.

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