Cartesian optics and the mastery of nature / Neil M. Ribe.
Abstract:
'Descartes's "Dioptrics" is more than a mere technical treatise on optics; it is an essay in the practical philosophy' that he claimed could render us masters and possessors of nature'... Accordingly, the ultimate goal of the "Dioptrics" is to master' human vision by raising it from a mere means of self-preservation to an instrument of scientific knowledge.'
Isis Vol. 88 (1997), p. 42-61