Optics in the Middle Ages: Alhacen Edition, 6

项目概要：知识价值在这里提出的阿尔哈森的《论方面》第6卷的批判版构成了一个长期计划的下一个阶段，即批判性地编辑该论文的所有七本书。这部作品最初是由伊本·海瑟姆在11世纪初创作的，用阿拉伯语命名为Kitab al-Manazir（“光学之书”），在1200年左右被翻译成拉丁语，标题为De aspectibus，并归因于“阿尔哈森”。从物理光理论和射线几何到视觉感知的生理学和心理学，这是对光学的全面处理，它代表了亚里士多德物理学和心理学，欧几里得-托勒密数学光学和盖伦解剖学和生理学的伟大综合。更重要的是，它在内容和方法论上都超越了希腊和希腊化的来源。因此，它为拉丁西方的光学和视觉分析提供了主导范式，直到17世纪初，它的理论基础被开普勒、笛卡尔和惠更斯等人破坏了。到目前为止，关于一般视觉感知的第1-3册已经出版，关于反射基本原理的第4-5册也即将出版。第6本书的版本将于2007年底出版。更广泛的影响除了它在光学史上的特殊意义和一般科学史上的意义外，De方面在这些学科的技术限制之外的领域的重要性早已得到承认。至少可以追溯到欧文·帕诺夫斯基（Erwin Panofsky）时代，艺术史学家们已经意识到阿尔哈森的视觉感知理论在中世纪和文艺复兴时期艺术规范的发展中所起的关键作用。同样，阿尔哈森对哲学和神学思想的影响也越来越受到关注，最近的文学研究发现，他对中世纪和文艺复兴时期诗歌中各种比喻的发展产生了影响。此外，心理学家越来越感兴趣的是阿尔哈森对空间感知的心理方面的强调，特别是在大小和距离决定方面。因此，这个版本的《论方面》有相当广泛的读者，拉丁文文本主要是专家感兴趣的，英语翻译和评论是专家和非专业人士都感兴趣的。为了确保尽可能广泛地传播，这一版本将同前两版一样，由PI以可出版的格式编制，以减少最后印刷版本的费用。此外，PI将探索最终以数字格式制作整个版本的可能性，以提高可访问性和可搜索性。最后，就其最广泛的影响而言，这类研究揭示了西方知识传统是如何深深植根于中世纪阿拉伯文献及其所传达的思想和方法。这些来源涵盖了从哲学和神学到天文学和数学的各个领域，其中一些的影响已经被很好地记录下来。但是，随着不太为人所知或不为人所知的资料，比如这篇文章，被公之于众，越来越明显的是，东西方的政治和文化关系产生了远比人们普遍认为的不可饶恕的敌意和排斥更丰富的成果。简而言之，这项研究应该有助于揭穿这种简单、错误、最终具有破坏性的假设。它还应该有助于揭穿任何挥之不去的观念，即阿拉伯文化本质上一直是落后的。

PROJECT SUMMARYIntellectual Merits The critical edition of book 6 of Alhacen's De aspectibus proposed here constitutes the nextstage of a long-term plan to critically edit all seven books of that treatise. Originally composedby Ibn al-Haytham in the early eleventh century and entitled Kitab al-Manazir ("Book of Optics")in Arabic, this work was translated into Latin around 1200 under the title De aspectibus andascribed to "Alhacen." A soup-to-nuts treatment of optics, from physical light-theory and ray geometry to the physiology and psychology of visual perception, it represents a grand synthesis of Aristotelian physics and psychology, Euclidean-Ptolemaic mathematical optics, and Galenic anatomy and physiology. More than that, though, it represents a significant advance beyond its Hellenic and Hellenistic sources at the level of both content and methodology. As such, it provided the dominant paradigm for optical and visual analysis in the Latin West until the early seventeenth century, when its theoretical foundations were undermined by the likes of Kepler, Descartes, and Huygens. To this point, books 1-3, which deal with visual perception ingeneral, have already been published, and books 4-5, on the basic principles of reflection, aresoon to be published. The edition of book 6 should be in print by late 2007.Broader ImpactsAside from its significance for the history of optics in particular and the history of science ingeneral, the De aspectibus has long been recognized for its importance in fields outside thetechnical limits of those disciplines. Going back at least to Erwin Panofsky, art historians havebeen aware of the crucial role Alhacen's theory of visual perception played in the developmentof medieval and Renaissance artistic norms. Likewise, Alhacen's influence on philosophicaland theological thought has come increasingly to attention, and recent literary studies havetraced his influence in the development of various tropes within medieval and Renaissancepoetry. Of increasing interest among psychologists, moreover, is Alhacen's emphasis on thepsychological aspects of spatial perception, particularly in regard to size- and distance determination.There is thus a fairly broad audience for this edition of the De aspectibus, the Latin text being of interest primarily to specialists, the English translation and commentary being of interest to both specialists and non-specialists. To ensure the widest dissemination possible, this edition, like its two forerunners, will be compiled in publish-ready format by the PI to cut down on the expense of the final printed version. In addition, the PI will explore the possibility of eventually producing the entire edition in digital format for greater accessibility and searchability.In terms, finally, of its broadest impact, this sort of study reveals how deeply grounded theWestern intellectual tradition is in medieval Arabic sources and the ideas and approaches theyconvey. These sources run the gamut from philosophical and theological to astronomical andmathematical, and the influence of some of them is already well documented. But, as lesserknown or understood sources, such as this one, are brought to the light of publication, itbecomes increasingly obvious that East-West political and cultural relations have yielded farricher fruit than the implacable hostility and rejection so commonly assumed. This study, inshort, should help put the lie to that simplistic, wrongheaded, and ultimately corrosiveassumption. It should also help put the lie to any lingering notion that Arabic culture is, andalways has been, intrinsically backward.