Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience

About this book

Although Hermann von Helmholtz was one of most remarkable figures ofnineteenth-century science he is little known outside his native Germany. Helmholtz (1821--1894)made significant contributions to the study of vision and perception and was also influential in thepainting music and literature of the time; one of his major works analyzed tone in music. Thisbook the first in English to describe Helmholtzs life and work in detail describes his scientificstudies analyzes them in the context of the science and philosophy of the period -- in particularthe German Naturphilosophie -- and gauges his influence on todaysneuroscience. Helmholtz trained by Johannes Mller one of the best physiologistsof his time used a resolutely materialistic and empirical scientific method in his research. Hiswork eclipsed at the beginning of the twentieth century by new ideas in neurophysiology hasrecently been rediscovered. We can now recognize in Helmholtzs methods -- which were based on hisbelief in the interconnectedness of physiology and psychology -- the origins ofneuroscience.