title: Why Goethe rejected Newton's theory of light.
abstract: Observations that he himself had made persuaded Goethe to reject Newton's theory of light and to put forward an alternative theory of the colour phenomena seen with a prism. Duck has argued that Goethe's attack on Newton's theory rested on valid experimental observations that appeared to present a difficulty for Newton's theory but to support his own views on colour. Duck has also proposed that these observations may be accounted for as an instance of the Bezold-Brücke phenomenon. It is argued here that this explanation is invalid and that two other features of colour processing can explain Goethe's observations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Treisman
mesh_terms: D003118:Color Perception; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000266:history*