Helmholtz : from enlightenment to neuroscience Although Hermann von Helmholtz was one of the most remarkable figures of nineteenth 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 the painting music and literature of the time; one of his major works analyzed tone in music. This book the first in English to describe Helmholtzs life and work in detail describes his scientific studies analyzes them in the context of the science and philosophy of the period in particular the German Naturphilosophie and gauges his influence on todays neuroscience. Helmholtz trained by Johannes Muller one of the best physiologists of his time used a resolutely materialistic and empirical scientific method in his research. This puts him in the tradition of Kant and the English empirical philosophers and directly opposed to the idealists and naturalists who interpreted nature based on metaphysical presuppositions. Helmholtzs research on color vision put him at odds with Goethes more romantic theorizing on the subject; but at the end of his life Helmholtz honored Goethes contributions acknowledging that artistic intuition could reveal truths about the human mind that are inaccessible to science. Helmholtzs work eclipsed at the beginning of the twentieth century by new ideas in neurophysiology has recently been rediscovered. We can now recognize in Helmholtzs methods which were based on his belief in the interconnectedness of physiology and psychology the origins of neuroscience. BOOK JACKET