Ibn al-Haytham and psychophysics

Perception. 2008;37(4):636-8. doi: 10.1068/p5940.

Abstract

Persian scholar Ibn al-Haytham ('Alhazen') has rightly been credited with many advances in optics and vision science, but recent spurious claims that he is the 'founder of psychophysics' rest upon unsupported assertions, a conflation of psychophysics with the wider discipline of psychology, and semantic arguments over what it is to 'found' a school of thought.

Publication types

  • Biography
  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Famous Persons*
  • History, Ancient
  • Humans
  • Islam
  • Medicine, Arabic*
  • Ophthalmology / history
  • Psychophysics / history*

Personal name as subject

  • Ibn al-Haytham