From: David Peterzell <peterzel@psy.ucsd.edu>
To: hchan@kirkham.ewind.com
Subject: Revived Interest in Fechner/150 yrs
Fechner Day: 150th Anniversary
New interest in Fechner
As many of you are aware, October 22, 1850 is considered an important day
in the history of psychology and sensory science. On that morning, Gustav
Fechner formulated his famous quantitative relation between mental
sensation and physical stimulus. Fechner's law is S = K log I (the mental
sensation varies as the logarithm of the material stimulus). Many of us
acknowledge the significance of Fechner's Law, as well as Fechner's
invention of psychophysical methodologies. As far as I can tell, we do not
typically delve much further into Fechner's work, or the philosophy that
motivated it.
Those interested in Fechner may wish to note that American philosopher Ken
Wilber has taken a recent interest in Fechner's (apparently largely
ignored) philosophy of life, mind, soul and consciousness. Wilber
discusses Fechner's work briefly in his new (2000) book, Integral
Psychology. Wilber dedicates his new book to Fechner, stating "Fechner's
true story had rarely been told." Wilber reports that a more comprehensive
reexamination of Fechner's ideas, along with those of James, Baldwin and
many other early psychologists, is about to be published in a two volume
textbook.
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