Hermann Helmholtz's ideas on the lawful orderliness of mental imagery
produced by external objects:
(From 'Die neuren Fortschritte in der Theorie des Sehens,' in Vortrage and Reden,
2 Vols., Braunschweig, 1884, 5th edition, Braunschweig, 1903, Vol. 2, pp. 265-365,
tranlated in Russel Kahl, ed., Selected Writings of Hermann von Helmholtz,
Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1971, pp. 144-222,
especially pp. 185-186.)
"The excitation of the nerves in the brain and the ideas in our consciousness
can be considered images of processes in the external world insofar as the
former parallel the latter, that is, insofar as they represent the similarity of
objects by a similarity of signs and thus represent a lawful order by a lawful
order."
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