Abstract

Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894) contributed two major works to the theory of sensation and perception in the nineteenth century. The first edition of The Doctrine of the Sensations of Tone was published in 1863, and the first edition of the Handbook of Physiological Optics was published in toto in 1867. These works established results both controversial and enduring: Helmholtz’s analysis of mixed colors and of combination tones, his arguments against nativism, and his commitment to analyzing sensation and perception using the techniques of natural science, especially physiology and physics. This study will focus on the Physiological Optics (hereafter PO ), and on Helmholtz’s account of sensation, perception, and representation via “physiological psychology”.