Baroque Optics and the Disappearance of the Observer: From Kepler's Optics to Descartes' Doubt.

The article presents an exploration into the intellectual history of the concept of the human observer within the field of optics and its implications on epistemology during the first half of the 17th century. The author highlights the gradual disappearance of the observer as a key figure within the research of the German astronomer Johannes Kepler and its philosophical connections to the idea of perspective. The full manifestation of this trend is then examined through the essays of philosopher Rene Descartes in his assertions of relative being.