ABSTRACT
James J. Gibson's career, influence, and reputation are a parade of paradoxes. On the one hand, he is easily the most important perceptual researcher and theorist this country has ever produced. His ideas and discoveries have influenced the many diverse fields for which an understanding of perception is relevant, including psychology, philosophy, art history, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive science, entertainment, and military-industrial psychology. But, on the other hand, Gibson's reputation within his own field of psychology is decidedly mixed. And outside psychology, many people who use his work on a daily basis have never heard his name.
