DOCSLIB.ORG

An Investigation of the Relationship Between Eye and Retinal Image

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Investigation of the Relationship Between Eye and Retinal Image An investigation of the relationship between eye and retinal inlage movement in the perception of movementl ARIENMACK2 NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH The question investigated was whether correlative phenomenon of no perceived perception of object mation and or not eye movements accompanied by movement despite the occurrence of retinal correlatively if eye movements are not abnormal retinal image movements, displacement to maintain that retinal image matched by retinal image displacements, movements t1uJt are either or both at a movement is either a sufficient or mavement will be perceived. Thus. when different rate or in a different direction necessary condition for tile perception of retimll: image changes are "matched," than the eye movement, predictably lead object movement. An afterimage viewed in constancy is predicted, and when those to perceived movement. Os reported the dark by an 0 moving his eyes appears changes are not "matched," some change whether or not they saw a visual target to move (Mack & Bachant, J969), but in visual perception is predicted. Constancy move when the movement of the target there is no retinal movement. A moving is predicted when retinal image changes are was either dependent on and simultaneous object in an otherwise empty fJeld, accounted for in terms of 0 movement with their eye movements or when the accurately pursued by the O's eyes, appears information. Constancy here signifies the target movement was independent of their to move, but there is no retinal movement. perception of stability in the visual field, eye movements. In the main experiment, A stationary scene viewed by moving eyes i.e., objects in the visual field appear to observations were made when the ratio appears stationary despite retinal image maintain their positions despite between eye and target movement (em/tm) movements (position constancy). The displacements of the retinal images. was 2/5. 1/5, 1/10, 1/20, and O. All these existence of these and other phenomena Failures of constancy refer to those ratios were tested when the direction of suggests that the relationship between occasions in which image displacements of the target movement was in the same (H+), retinal image movement and perceived stationary objects lead to perceived opposite (H-), and at right angle's to movement is more complex. A theory that movement in the visual field. (V+, V-) the movement of the eye~ t:ve attempts to specify the relationship The postulation of some sort of movements, target movements, and reports between image or stimulus displacements comparator mechanism provides a concept of target movement were recorded. Results and perceived movement has been that allows us to account for many of the indicate that a discrepancy between eye variously referred to as a cancellation, facts of movement perception. There is and target movement greater than 20% discounting, compensating, or now considerable evidence supporting the predictably leads to perceived target taking-into-account theory of movement operation of this sort of mechanism during movement, whereas a discrepancy of5% or perception (von Holst, 1954; Mackay, head movements. Information about head less rarely leads to perceived movement. 1967; Rock, 1966; Teuber, 1960). movements appears to mediate the The results are interpreted as support for If we are permitted to overlook the relationship between visual displacement the operation of a compensatory subtle and not so subtle differences and perceived movement (Wallach & mechanism during eye movements. between the various statements of this Kravitz, 1965; Wallach & Frey, 1969; Hay, theory, it becomes possible to set out its 1968; Rock, 1966). In these studies, What is the basis of perceiving the main outlines. All forms of this theory are abnurmal visual displacements, movement of a single object in an in agreement that retinal image changes displacements that are either faster, slower, otherwise unstructured visual field? The alone can neither account for the or in a different direction than the O's own most obvious answer is that it is the occurrence of movement perception nor head movements and do not simply reflect movement of the retinal image that is alone determine whether the movement the 0 movement, predictably led to crucial,3 since with every movement of an perceived resides in the object or in the O. perceived object motion. Until now there object there is a corresponding movement It is a theory that accounts for perceived has been no available evidence that a of the image of that object across the object motion as well as the failure to comparator operates during eye retina of the O. This answer is the more perceive object motion despite movements. Since the eyes are rarely still attractive since there is now ample displacements or changes in the retinal and since we generally see our visual evidence that vertebrate nervous systems image. It assumes, in fact, that these are environment as stationary despite the are well endowed with receptor cells correlative events. The theory asserts that constant displacements of the retinal uniquely sensitive to retinal movements. If, the basis ofperceived object motion resides images produced by the fairly constant however, retinal displacement were the in the relationship between the behavior of movements of the eye, it would appear central factor in perceiving object the retinal image and the available sensory that some kind of comparator mechanism movement, it would follow that every time information about the movement of the o. in fact operates during eye movements.4 there was retinal movement greater than It assumes the existence of some kind of Yet in the only completely reported the threshold of the detecting cell central mechanism, a comparator experiment examining the relationship mechanisms, object movement· would be (von Holst, 1954) that takes into account, between eye movements, image perceived, and in its absence, no such matches, compares, or evaluates retinal movements, and the perception of movement would be seen. image shifts with reference to information movement (Wallach & Lewis, 1965) the It is, of course, a well·known fact that about 0 movement. The theory assumes authors conclude that target movements the case is not so simple. There are too that if not accounted for or matched by are not assessed in terms of eye many instances of perceived movement in appropriate 0 movements, retinal image movements. By devising a situation in the absence of retinal movement and of the displacements will invariably lead to the which the 0 saw a projection of his own Perception & Psychophysics, 1970, Vol. 8 (SA) Copyright 1970, Psychonomic Journals, Inc., Austin, Texas 291 pupil, the authors produced abnormal target motion. Unfortunately the account approximately 2 mm in diam, were displacements of a visual target dependent given is brief and no details are included. recorded by one channel of the pen on eye movements. This technique made it The contradiction between the Wallach recorder. Simultaneous recording of eye possible to produce a situation in which and Lewis results and those briefly and target trace movemertt permitted a the target disk, the projection of the pupil, reported by Yarbus made further continuous check on the relation between could be made to move at either a slower examination of the relationship between eye and target movement. The volume or faster rate than the eye itself. Their eye movement, image movement, and control knob was calibrated from 0 to I. results indicate that abnormal target perceived movement necessary. Another When this knob was set at 0, the trace was dis p lacements accompanying eye reason for such a study is the fact that an not moved at all by eye movements. When movements, do not reliably cause reports eye- m()ve me n t/ im age -m ove men t this knob was set at 1, the trace moved the of perceived target movement. They comparator capable of doing nothing more same amount as the eyes and thus could conclude: "Our results are incompatible than merely discriminating between approximate a stabilized image (Le., when with the view that the apparent rest of instances of eye movements that are either the direction of trace displacement and eye visual objects whose images shift due to accompanied or not accompanied by movement were the same). When the knob eye movements is to be explained by a retinal displacements would make it very was set at some point between 1 and 0, the compensating process which takes the eye difficult to account for any perception of trace moved some fraction of the amount movements into account." movement during eye movements. the eyes moved. Thus, when the knob was From the Wallach and· Lewis results it By a technique different from that used set at 2/5, the target trace moved 2/5 of might be possible to argue that all by either Wallach and Lewis or Yarbus, a the distance that the eyes moved. (All de tection of retinal displacement is situation was created in which eye calibrations were frequently checked.) The suppressed during eye movements. If this movements were accompanied by increase in what is best described as trace were the case, then, since no retinal abnormal image displacements, that is, jitter with increase in gain were mostly displacements would be registered during displacements that did not directly reflect eliminated by filtering. What jitter an eye movement, there would be no the movements of the eye. Os reported remained was accounted for in the reason to expect a loss of position whether or not the target at which they experimental design. constancy during eye movements, and were looking appeared to move. A switch on the control panel permitted there would be no reason to postulate rapid shifts from the horizontal to the some kind of comparator that could match METHOD vertical input channels of the oscilloscopes.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Eye-Movement Studies of Visual Face Perception
    Eye-movement studies of visual face perception Joseph Arizpe A dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience University College London 2015 1 Declaration I, Joseph Arizpe, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract This thesis investigates factors influencing eye-movement patterns during face perception, the relationship of eye-movement patterns to facial recognition performance, and methodological considerations impacting the detection of differences in eye-movement patterns. In particular, in the first study (chapter 2), in which the basis of the other-race effect was investigated, differences in eye- movement patterns during recognition of own- versus other-race (African, Chinese) faces were found for Caucasian participants. However, these eye- movement differences were subtle and analysis-dependent, indicating that the discrepancy in prior reports regarding the presence or absence of such differences are due to variability in statistical sensitivity of analysis methods across studies. The second and third studies (chapters 3 and 4) characterized visuomotor factors, specifically pre-stimulus start position and distance, which strongly influence subsequent eye-movement patterns during face perception. An overall bias in fixation patterns to the opposite side of the face induced by start position and an increasing undershoot of the first ordinal fixation with increasing start distance were found. These visuomotor influences were not specific to faces and did not depend on the predictability of the location of the upcoming stimulus.
    [Show full text]
  • Eye Fields in the Frontal Lobes of Primates
    Brain Research Reviews 32Ž. 2000 413±448 www.elsevier.comrlocaterbres Full-length review Eye fields in the frontal lobes of primates Edward J. Tehovnik ), Marc A. Sommer, I-Han Chou, Warren M. Slocum, Peter H. Schiller Department of Brain and CognitiÕe Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, E25-634, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Accepted 19 October 1999 Abstract Two eye fields have been identified in the frontal lobes of primates: one is situated dorsomedially within the frontal cortex and will be referred to as the eye field within the dorsomedial frontal cortexŽ. DMFC ; the other resides dorsolaterally within the frontal cortex and is commonly referred to as the frontal eye fieldŽ. FEF . This review documents the similarities and differences between these eye fields. Although the DMFC and FEF are both active during the execution of saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements, the FEF is more dedicated to these functions. Lesions of DMFC minimally affect the production of most types of saccadic eye movements and have no effect on the execution of smooth pursuit eye movements. In contrast, lesions of the FEF produce deficits in generating saccades to briefly presented targets, in the production of saccades to two or more sequentially presented targets, in the selection of simultaneously presented targets, and in the execution of smooth pursuit eye movements. For the most part, these deficits are prevalent in both monkeys and humans. Single-unit recording experiments have shown that the DMFC contains neurons that mediate both limb and eye movements, whereas the FEF seems to be involved in the execution of eye movements only.
    [Show full text]
  • Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science
    APRIL 1978 Vol. 17/4 Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science A Journal of Clinical and Basic Research Articles Training of voluntary torsion Richard Balliet and Ken Nakayama By means of a visual feedback technique, human subjects were trained to make large conjugate cyclorotary eye movements at will. The range of movement increased with training at a rate of approximately 0.8° per hour of practice, reaching 30° at the end of training. Photographs recorded the ability to make voluntary cyclofixations at any amplitude within the subject's range. Cyclotorsional pursuit was also trained, with ability increasing with greater amounts of visual feedback. In addition, torsional saccadic tracking was trained, showing a magnitude vs. peak velocity relationship similar to that seen for normal saccades. Control experiments indi- cate that all of these movements were voluntary, with no significant visual induction. With extended practice, large torsional movements could be made without any visual stimulation. The emergence of voluntary torsion through training demonstrates that the oculomotor system has more plasticity than has generally been assumed, reopening the issue as to whether other movements could also be trained to alleviate the symptoms of strabismus. Key words: eye movements, torsion, saccades, slow pursuit, fixation, orthoptics, oculomotor plasticity c' yclorotations are defined as rotations the eye can undergo a cyclorotation as it about the visual axis of the eye. These rota- moves from one tertiary position of gaze to tions are considered to be reflexive, with no another, but the amount of this cyclorotation indication of voluntary control. For example, is fixed, being dictated by Listings law.11 In addition, involuntary cyclovergence has been 1 From the Smith-Kettlewell Institute of Visual Science, reported to occur during convergence, and Department of Visual Sciences, University of the reflexive cycloversions have been demon- Pacific, San Francisco, Calif.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effect of Eye Movements and Blinks on Afterimage Appearance and Duration
    Journal of Vision (2015) 15(3):20, 1–15 http://www.journalofvision.org/content/15/3/20 1 The effect of eye movements and blinks on afterimage appearance and duration School of Psychology, Cardiff University, # Georgina Powell Cardiff, Wales, UK $ School of Psychology, Cardiff University, # Petroc Sumner Cardiff, Wales, UK $ Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, # Aline Bompas Centre Hospitalier Vinatier, Bron, Cedex, France $ The question of whether eye movements influence argued that afterimage signals are inherently ambigu- afterimage perception has been asked since the 18th ous, and this could explain why their visibility is century, and yet there is surprisingly little consensus on influenced by cues, such as surrounding luminance how robust these effects are and why they occur. The edges, more than are real stimuli (Powell, Bompas, & number of historical theories aiming to explain the Sumner, 2012). Helmholtz (1962) identified another cue effects are more numerous than clear experimental that is important to take into account when conducting demonstrations of such effects. We provide a clearer afterimage experiments: characterization of when eye movements and blinks do or do not affect afterimages with the aim to distinguish For obtaining really beautiful positive after- between historical theories and integrate them with a images, the following additional rules should be modern understanding of perception. We found neither saccades nor pursuit reduced strong afterimage observed. Both before and after they are devel- duration, and blinks actually increased afterimage oped, any movement of the eye or any sudden duration when tested in the light. However, for weak movement of the body must be carefully avoided, afterimages, we found saccades reduced duration, and because under such circumstances they invariably blinks and pursuit eye movements did not.
    [Show full text]
  • Cine Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Eye Movements
    CINE MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING OF EYE MOVEMENTS C. c. BAILEY\ J. KABALA2, R. LAITT2, M. WESTON2, P. GODDARD2, H. B. HOHl, M. J. POTTSl and R. A. HARRADl Bristol SUMMARY Images were obtained using the FISP 2D sequence (fast Cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique in imaging with a steady state progression). The patient was which multiple sequential static orbital MRI films are positioned within the head coil in the magnet. A strip of taken while the patient fixates a series of targets across paper with six separate marks set 30° apart was suspended the visual field. These are then sequenced to give a in front of the patient and aligned either transversely or graphic animation to the eyes. The excellent soft tissue sagittally depending on the eye movement of interest. The differentiationofMRI, combined with the dynamic imag­ patient was asked to look sequentially at each mark on the ing, allows rapid visualisation, and functional assessment paper, and a scan was performed in each position. Each of the extraocular muscles. Good assessment of contrac­ image took 15 seconds to acquire. After the patient had tility can be obtained, but the technique does not allow fixated all six points the procedure was repeated in reverse study of saccadic or pursuit eye movements. We have order. The images generated were then displayed as a used this technique in 36 patients with a range of ocular continuous video loop. The total time required to generate motility disorders, including thyroid-related ophthalmo­ a video loop for each patient was only 6 minutes.
    [Show full text]
  • Pseudogaze in Afterimages
    Journal of Vision (2016) 16(5):6, 1–10 1 Where are you looking? Pseudogaze in afterimages Caltech Brain Imaging Center, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, # Daw-An Wu Pasadena, CA, USA $ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Universite´ # Patrick Cavanagh Paris Descartes, Paris, France $ How do we know where we are looking? A frequent gaze seems exceptionally well defined and we seldom assumption is that the subjective experience of our feel that we don’t know where we are looking within a direction of gaze is assigned to the location in the world visual scene. The conceptual equivalence of mental and that falls on our fovea. However, we find that observers physical gaze is ingrained to the point that the two can shift their subjective direction of gaze among concepts share almost all their terminology, even in different nonfoveal points in an afterimage. Observers scientific and technical usage. Terms such as ‘‘gaze,’’ were asked to look directly at different corners of a ‘‘look at,’’ ‘‘fixate,’’ etc. do not distinguish between the diamond-shaped afterimage. When the requested corner subjective sense of visual targeting and the physical was 3.58 in the periphery, the observer often reported pointing of the eyes at something. that the image moved away in the direction of the Whereas a large body of work exists regarding the attempted gaze shift. However, when the corner was at perceived direction of visual targets in egocentric space 1.758 eccentricity, most reported successfully fixating at the point.
    [Show full text]
  • Types of Eye Movements
    Types of Eye Movements The information given here is deliberately non-technical and is based for a general Background audience. With apologies to eye movement research colleagues for liberties taken in Objective simplification. Challenges Visual Search & Paintings In our everyday lives we regularly make various types of eye movements, usually without The Exhibit being aware of them. Such movements occur as a result of the activity of the three pairs of Updates antagonistic muscles that support each eye. There are several ways to record eye Press Reports movements and more information can be found here. Links FAQ In looking at paintings, or other two-dimensional scenes, only saccadic eye movements and their associated fixations, in the main, are of research interest. Miniature eye People movements also occur, and these overlay the fixations causing many small movements which, to a large extent, can be regarded as ‘system noise’ (unless the researcher is Home specifically interested in these movements). Main types of eye movements:- [this list of links all link to subsequent sections on this page] Saccade Miniature Pursuit Smooth Compensatory Vergence Nystagmus Saccade A saccade is a rapid eye movement (a jump) which is usually conjugate (i.e. both eyes move together in the same direction) and under voluntary control. Broadly speaking the purpose of these movements is to bring images of particular areas of the visual world to fall onto the fovea. Saccades are therefore a major instrument of selective visual attention. It is often convenient (but somewhat inaccurate) to consider both that a saccadic eye movement always occurs in a straight line and also that we do not ‘see’ during these movements.
    [Show full text]
  • Optical Illusion Art As Radical Interface
    Perceptual Play: Optical Illusion Art as Radical Interface Julian Oliver, 2008 In 1992 Joachim Sauter and Dirk Lüsebrink presented a work called Zerseher ('Iconoclast') at Ars Electronica, where they were awarded a prize in the Interactive Art category. In this work, audiences were invited to destroy a (digital) copy of an antique painting just by looking at it. Zerseher provides a context for direct manipulation of the visible work. The position and orientation of the viewer's eyes are tracked using a camera which, in turn, directs a digital brush over the surface of the image, smearing pixels around. It's not hard to see why the piece was awarded; here the premise explored in philosophy and poetry, that the gaze might have a mutating or productive power of its own, was explicitly manifested: the mere act of looking had the power to alter (or destroy) the artefact itself. Historically speaking, the idea that the gaze might be a primally destabilising force may have arisen from the fact that seeing itself is not always reliable; that the act of seeing – and perceiving what is seen – is something to be suspicious of. Many works of philosophy and poetry have asserted the primary fragility of perception, particularly as related to the ocular sense. This can be traced back as far as Plato in Western thought, who was early in identifying that what is seen propagates as an object of thought – a mental image – separated from the world and that it is there that interpretation occurs: "The image stands at the junction of a light which comes from the object and another which comes from the gaze".1 In recent times, the study of perception2 has been as active in scienctific thought as it has in philosophy.
    [Show full text]
  • A Robust Method of Eye Torsion Measurement for Medical Applications Nan Jin, Sébastien Mavromatis, Jean Sequeira, Stéphane Curcio
    A Robust Method of Eye Torsion Measurement for Medical Applications Nan Jin, Sébastien Mavromatis, Jean Sequeira, Stéphane Curcio To cite this version: Nan Jin, Sébastien Mavromatis, Jean Sequeira, Stéphane Curcio. A Robust Method of Eye Torsion Measurement for Medical Applications. Information, MDPI, 2020, 11 (9), pp.408. 10.3390/info11090408. hal-02919784 HAL Id: hal-02919784 https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02919784 Submitted on 24 Aug 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License information Article A Robust Method of Eye Torsion Measurement for Medical Applications Nan Jin 1,2,* ,Sébastien Mavromatis 1 , Jean Sequeira 1 and Stéphane Curcio 2 1 Aix Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, CNRS, LIS, 13000 Marseille, France; [email protected] (S.M.); [email protected] (J.S.) 2 SYNAPSYS, 13013 Marseille, France; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +33-4-9111-7682 Received: 8 July 2020; Accepted: 19 August 2020; Published: 21 August 2020 Abstract: The detection of eye torsion is an important element for diagnosis of balance disorders, although it is rarely available in existing eye tracking systems.
    [Show full text]
  • Cortical Regions Involved in Eye Movements, Shifts of Attention, and Gaze Perception
    ᭜ Human Brain Mapping 25:140–154(2005) ᭜ Cortical Regions Involved in Eye Movements, Shifts of Attention, and Gaze Perception Marie-He´le`ne Grosbras,1* Angela R. Laird,2 and Toma´s Paus1,3 1Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada 2Research Imaging Center, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 3Brain and Body Center, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom ᭜ ᭜ Abstract: Human vision is an active process that involves shifting attention across the visual scene, with or without moving the eyes. Such shifts of attention can be generated at will (endogenously) or be triggered automatically, i.e., generated in response to exogenous stimuli including socially relevant cues such as someone else’s gaze. What are the common and distinct brain mechanisms involved in these processes? To address this question, we carried out a quantitative effect-location meta-analysis of 59 brain-imaging experiments whose results were published using standardized coordinates. For each condition of interest, namely voluntary and visually triggered eye movements, voluntary and visually triggered (covert) shifts of attention, and perception of someone else’s gaze, we computed activation likelihood estimation (ALE) maps. Those maps represent at each voxel of the brain the probability of reporting a signal change related to the condition of interest. For eye movements, this analysis confirmed the spatial location of the frontal eye fields, supplementary eye fields, and parietal saccade-related regions. The map of covert shifts of attention demonstrated highest similarity with the map of saccadic eye movements. Gaze perception showed common activation likelihood with the other conditions in the right intraparietal sulcus and in the lateral precentral gyrus.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring the Human Visual Perception Process to Foster Mindful Seeing (Finding the Angels and Devils in the Details)
    Exploring the Human Visual Perception Process to Foster Mindful Seeing (Finding the Angels and Devils in the Details) by David T. E. Foster A thesis exhibition presented to OCAD University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER of DESIGN (MDes) in DIGITAL FUTURES. Location: Toronto Media Arts Centre (TMAC), April 12 – 14, 2019 32 Lisgar St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada © David T. E. Foster - 2019 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize OCAD University to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. I further authorize OCAD University to reproduce this thesis by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. Signed: _____________________________, Date: _________________ ii ABSTRACT David T. E. Foster ‘Exploring the Human Visual Perception Process to Foster Mindful Seeing (Finding the Angels and Devils in the Details)’ Master of Design, Digital Futures OCAD University, 2019 Using the principles of Iterative and Human Centred Design as methodologies, gaze-tracking equipment and techniques and analysis of writings in such areas as medical, neurological and psychological studies in the visual perception process, the principles of mindfulness and mindful meditation, Trompe L’oeil painting and camouflage, this project will observe the saccade/fixation patterns of study participants viewing multiple different photographic images in an attempt to build a database of saccade/fixation patterns.
    [Show full text]
  • Eye and Mind*
    Eye and Mind* Maurice Merleau-Ponty What I am trying to convey to you is more mysterious; it is entwined in the very roots of being, in the impalpable source of sensations. J. Gasquet, Cézanne Science manipulates things and gives up living in them.1 Operating within its own realm, it makes its constructs of things; operating upon these indices or variables to effect whatever transformations are permitted by their definition, it comes face to face with the real world only at rare intervals. It is, and always has been, that admirably active, ingenious, and bold way of thinking whose fundamental bias is to treat everything as though it were an object-in-general—as though it meant nothing to us and yet was predestined for our ingenious schemes. But classical science clung to a feeling for the opaqueness of the world, and it expected through its constructions to get back into the world. For this reason it felt obliged to seek a transcendent or transcendental foundation for its operations. Today we find—not in science but in a widely prevalent philosophy of the sciences—an entirely new approach. Constructive scientific activities see themselves and represent themselves to be autonomous, and their thinking deliberately reduces itself to a set of data-collecting techniques which it has invented. To think is thus to test out, to operate, to transform—the only restriction being that this activity is regulated by an experimental control that admits only the most "worked-up" phenomena, more likely produced by the apparatus than recorded by it. Whence all sorts of vagabond endeavors.
    [Show full text]