Contents: (1) Historical Overview; & Descartes's Perspectivist Sources; (2) Analysis of Refraction: Cartesian Light-Theory; & A Critical Evaluation; (3) The Foundations of Perspectivist Optics: Perspectivist Light-Theory; Quantization of Light; & Comparison with Descartes's Theory of Light; (4) The Perspectivist Analysis of Refraction: Physical Model; Physical "Explanation" & The Final Cause; (5) Perspectivist Grounds of the Cartesian Proof: Mathematical Implications; From Cosines to Sines; & Descartes Revisited; (6) Cartesian Light-Theory as a Culmination; Toward a Kinetic Theory of Light; & Epistemological Consequences. App.: The Sine-Law Before Descartes; The Fermat-Descartes Controversy; & Kepler, Descartes & the Anaclastic. Illustrations.

An Iranian scholar chronicles the life and legacy of the last Shah of Iran, including his role in the creation of the modern Islamic republic.

Contents: (1) Historical Overview; & Descartes¿s Perspectivist Sources; (2) Analysis of Refraction: Cartesian Light-Theory; & A Critical Evaluation; (3) The Foundations of Perspectivist Optics: Perspectivist Light-Theory; Quantization of Light; & Comparison with Descartes¿s Theory of Light; (4) The Perspectivist Analysis of Refraction: Physical Model; Physical ¿Explanation¿ & The Final Cause; (5) Perspectivist Grounds of the Cartesian Proof: Mathematical Implications; From Cosines to Sines; & Descartes Revisited; (6) Cartesian Light-Theory as a Culmination; Toward a Kinetic Theory of Light; & Epistemological Consequences. App.: The Sine-Law Before Descartes; The Fermat-Descartes Controversy; & Kepler, Descartes & the Anaclastic. Illustrations.

The Cambridge Descartes Lexicon is the definitive reference source on René Descartes, 'the father of modern philosophy' and arguably among the most important philosophers of all time. Examining the full range of Descartes' achievements and legacy, it includes 256 in-depth entries that explain key concepts relating to his thought. Cumulatively they uncover interpretative disputes, trace his influences, and explain how his work was received by critics and developed by followers. There are entries on topics such as certainty, cogito ergo sum, doubt, dualism, free will, God, geometry, happiness, human being, knowledge, Meditations on First Philosophy, mind, passion, physics, and virtue, which are written by the largest and most distinguished team of Cartesian scholars ever assembled for a collaborative research project - 92 contributors from ten countries.

From its inception in Greek antiquity, the science of optics was aimed primarily at explaining sight and accounting for why things look as they do. By the end of the seventeenth century, however, the analytic focus of optics had shifted to light: its fundamental properties and such physical behaviors as reflection, refraction, and diffraction. This dramatic shift—which A. Mark Smith characterizes as the “Keplerian turn”—lies at the heart of this fascinating and pioneering study. Breaking from previous scholarship that sees Johannes Kepler as the culmination of a long-evolving optical tradition that traced back to Greek antiquity via the Muslim Middle Ages, Smith presents Kepler instead as marking a rupture with this tradition, arguing that his theory of retinal imaging, which was published in 1604, was instrumental in prompting the turn from sight to light. Kepler’s new theory of sight, Smith reveals, thus takes on true historical significance: by treating the eye as a mere light-focusing device rather than an image-producing instrument—as traditionally understood—Kepler’s account of retinal imaging helped spur the shift in analytic focus that eventually led to modern optics. A sweeping survey, From Sight to Light is poised to become the standard reference for historians of optics as well as those interested more broadly in the history of science, the history of art, and cultural and intellectual history.