WHY GOETHE REJECTED NEWTON THEORY OF LIGHT

Observations that he himself had made persuaded Goethe to reject Newto n's theory of light and to put forward an alternative theory of the co lour phenomena seen with a prism. Duck has argued that Goethe's attack on Newton's theory rested on valid experimental observations that app eared to present a difficulty for Newton's theory but to support his o wn views on colour. Duck has also proposed that these observations may be accounted for as an instance of the Bezold-Brucke phenomenon. It i s argued here that this explanation is invalid and that two other feat ures of colour processing can explain Goethe's observations.