An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision
E105890
An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision is a philosophical treatise by George Berkeley that explores how we perceive distance, size, and spatial properties through vision, arguing that such perceptions are learned rather than innate.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T891043 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision Context triple: [George Berkeley, notableWork, An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision]
-
A.
Handbuch der physiologischen Optik
Handbuch der physiologischen Optik is a foundational 19th-century treatise on physiological optics that systematically integrated experimental physics and physiology to explain human vision.
-
B.
An Account of Some Cases of the Production of Colours
"An Account of Some Cases of the Production of Colours" is a scientific paper by Thomas Young that presents key experimental evidence for the wave theory of light and explains color phenomena through interference.
-
C.
Traité de la lumière
Traité de la lumière is a seminal 1690 scientific treatise that presents Christiaan Huygens’ wave theory of light, including the principle now known as Huygens’ principle.
-
D.
Opticks
Opticks is Isaac Newton’s influential 1704 treatise that systematically explores the nature of light and color through experiments with prisms and lenses.
-
E.
The Analysis of Sensations
The Analysis of Sensations is Ernst Mach’s influential philosophical and scientific treatise that examines perception and experience to argue for an empiricist, anti-metaphysical view of the physical world.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision Target entity description: An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision is a philosophical treatise by George Berkeley that explores how we perceive distance, size, and spatial properties through vision, arguing that such perceptions are learned rather than innate.
-
A.
Handbuch der physiologischen Optik
Handbuch der physiologischen Optik is a foundational 19th-century treatise on physiological optics that systematically integrated experimental physics and physiology to explain human vision.
-
B.
An Account of Some Cases of the Production of Colours
"An Account of Some Cases of the Production of Colours" is a scientific paper by Thomas Young that presents key experimental evidence for the wave theory of light and explains color phenomena through interference.
-
C.
Traité de la lumière
Traité de la lumière is a seminal 1690 scientific treatise that presents Christiaan Huygens’ wave theory of light, including the principle now known as Huygens’ principle.
-
D.
Opticks
Opticks is Isaac Newton’s influential 1704 treatise that systematically explores the nature of light and color through experiments with prisms and lenses.
-
E.
The Analysis of Sensations
The Analysis of Sensations is Ernst Mach’s influential philosophical and scientific treatise that examines perception and experience to argue for an empiricist, anti-metaphysical view of the physical world.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical treatise ⓘ |
| argumentType | empirical analysis of perception ⓘ |
| author | George Berkeley ⓘ |
| canonicalStatus | major work in the philosophy of perception ⓘ |
| centuryOfPublication | 18th century ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Ireland ⓘ |
| genre | early modern philosophical essay ⓘ |
| hasAuthorialIntent | to refute the view that distance is immediately seen ⓘ |
| hasForm | prose ⓘ |
| hasImpactOn |
empirical psychology of vision
ⓘ
later theories of visual space ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | early modern philosophy ⓘ |
| influenced |
David Hume
ⓘ
Immanuel Kant ⓘ empiricist theories of perception ⓘ philosophy of perception ⓘ psychology of perception ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
John Locke
ⓘ
early modern empiricism ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainClaim |
ideas of sight and ideas of touch are distinct and must be associated by experience
ⓘ
there is no immediate visual perception of distance ⓘ visual perception of distance is learned rather than innate ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
perception of distance
ⓘ
perception of size ⓘ perception of spatial properties ⓘ theory of vision ⓘ |
| notableConcept |
distinction between visual and tactile ideas
ⓘ
indirect perception of distance ⓘ learned association between sight and touch ⓘ |
| originalMedium | print ⓘ |
| philosophicalDiscipline |
epistemology
ⓘ
philosophy of mind ⓘ philosophy of perception ⓘ |
| philosophicalPositionDefended | anti-nativism about visual distance perception ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | empiricism ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1709 ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
ⓘ
Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous ⓘ |
| subjectArea |
optics in philosophy
ⓘ
sensory perception ⓘ |
| title | An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision Description of subject: An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision is a philosophical treatise by George Berkeley that explores how we perceive distance, size, and spatial properties through vision, arguing that such perceptions are learned rather than innate.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.