[The history of color theories]

The origins of color theories are closely linked to the Greeks' theories of vision. Plato explained vision as a combined action of light from within (i.e. from the eye) and light from without: this view was, in a certain sense, revived by Goethe. Aristotle, on the other hand, defined vision as the passive reception, by the eye, of an action originating in objects: thus, he was the originator of scientific optics, as propounded 2000 years later by Newton. The present author compares Newton's experimental analysis of spectral colors produced by triangular glass prisms with Goethe's more intuitive theory of the primordial phenomena (Urphänomene) of color vision. Apparently, Goethe started from the same point as Newton: experimentation with optical prisms. But he looked, as it were, in the opposite direction: he did not examine the objective image formed by a prism but described what he himself perceived when looking through a prism. It was this subjective image which he analyzed and on which he built his own color theory. The direction of his argument was fixed right from the beginning: from the very first glance through his prism he was convinced--by intuition, not by reflection--that Newton must have been wrong. No wonder this prejudice led him astray! However, Goethe's careful and skillful analysis of the subjective perception of light and colors bore other fruits. Under the heading of "physiological colors" he describes, in his "Farbenlehre", some important phenomena of visual physiology such as simultaneous and successive color contrasts.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)