GUSTAV THEODOR See also:

• GUSTAV THEODOR FECHNER (1801-1887)

FECHNER (1801-1887)  , See also:

• GERMAN
• GERMAN, DUTCH AND SCANDINAVIAN

German experimental psychologist, was See also:

• BORN, IGNAZ, EDLER VON (1742–1791)

born on the 19th of See also:

• APRIL

April 18or at See also:

• GROSS

Gross-Sarchen, near Muskau, in See also:

• LOWER

Lower See also:

• LUSATIA (Ger. Lausitz)

Lusatia, where his See also:

• FATHER

father was pastor . He was educated at See also:

• SORAU

Sorau and See also:

• DRESDEN

Dresden and at the university of See also:

• LEIPZIG

Leipzig, in which See also:

• CITY (through Fr. cite, from Lat. civitas)

city he spent the See also:

• REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

rest of his See also:

• LIFE

life . In 1834 he was appointed See also:

• PROFESSOR (the Latin noun formed from the verb profiteri, to declare publicly, to acknowledge, profess)

professor of physics, but in 1839 contracted an See also:

• AFFECTION (Lat. ad, and facere, to do something to, sc. a person)

affection of the eyes while studying the phenomena of See also:

• COLOUR (Lat. color, connected with celare, to hide, the root meaning, therefore, being that of a covering)

colour and See also:

• VISION (from Lat. videre, to see), or SIGHT

vision, and, after much suffering, resigned . Subsequently recovering, he turned to the study of mind and the relations between See also:

• BODY

body and mind, giving public lectures on the subjects of which his books treat . He died at Leipzig on the 18th of See also:

• NOVEMBER (Lat. novem, nine)

November 1887 . Among his See also:

• WORKS

works may be mentioned: Das Biichlein vont Leben nach dem Tode (1836, 5th ed., 1903), which has been translated into See also:

• ENGLISH

English; Nanna, See also:

• ODER (Lat. Viadua; Slavonic, Vjodr)

oder i ber das Seelenleben der Pflanzen (1848, 3rd ed., 1903); Zendavesta, oder ' The liqueur is said to have been manufactured by the See also:

• BENEDICTINE

Benedictine monks of the See also:

• ABBEY (Lat. abbatia; from Syr. abba, father)
• ABBEY, EDWIN AUSTIN (1852– )

abbey as far back as 151o; since the Revolution it has been produced commercially by a See also:

• SECULAR (Lat. saecularis, of or belonging to an age or generation, saeculum)

secular See also:

• COMPANY

company . The See also:

• FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)

familiar See also:

• LEGEND (through the French from the med. Lat. legenda, things to be read, from legere, to read)

legend D . O . M . (Deo Optimo Maximo) on the bottles preserves the memory of its See also:

• ORIGINAL

original makers . caber See also:

• DIE
• DIE (Fr. de, from Lat. datum, given)

die Dinge See also:

• DES

des $immels and des Jenseits (1851, 2nd ed. by Lasswitz, Igor); Ober die physikalische and philosophische Atomenlehre (1853, 2nd ed., 1864); Elemente der Psychophysik (x86o, 2nd ed., 1889); Vorschule der Asthetik (1876, 2nd ed., 1898); Die Tagesansicht gegeniiber der Nachtansicht (1879) . He also published chemical and See also:

• PHYSICAL

physical papers, and translated chemical'works by J .

B . See also:

• BIOT, JEAN BAPTISTE (1774-1862)

Biot and L . J . See also:

• THENARD, LOUIS JACQUES (1777-1857)

Thenard from the See also:

• FRENCH
• FRENCH, DANIEL CHESTER (1850– )
• FRENCH, NICHOLAS (1604-1678)

French . A different but essential See also:

• SIDE
• SIDE (mod. Eski Adalia)

side' of his See also:

• CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character is seen in his poems and humorous pieces, such as the Vergleichende Anatomie der See also:

• ENGEL, ERNST (1821-1896)
• ENGEL, JOHANN JAKOB (1741-1802)

Engel (1825), written under the See also:

• PSEUDONYM (Gr. >l ev&,vuµos, having a false name, ¢Evirls, false and ovoµa, name)

pseudonym of " Dr Mises." See also:

• FECHNER, GUSTAV THEODOR (1801-1887)

Fechner's See also:

• EPOCH (Gr. E7roxij, holding in suspense, a pause, from E1rxav, to hold up, to stop)

epoch-making See also:

• WORK

work was his Elemente der Psychophysik (186o) . He starts from the Spinozistic thought that bodily facts and conscious facts, though not reducible one to the other, are different sides of one reality . His originality lies in trying to discover an exact mathematical relation between them . The most famous outcome of his inquiries is the See also:

• LAW
• LAW (0. Eng. lagu, M. Eng. lawe; from an old Teutonic root lag, " lie," what lies fixed or evenly; cf. Lat. lex, Fr. loi)
• LAW, JOHN (1671—1729)
• LAW, WILLIAM (1686-1761)

law known as See also:

• WEBER, CARL MARIA FRIEDRICH ERNEST VON (1786–1826)
• WEBER, WILHELM EDUARD (1804-1891)

Weber's or Fechner's law which may be expressed as follows:—" In See also:

• ORDER
• ORDER (through Fr. ordre, for earlier ordene, from Lat. ordo, ordinis, rank, service, arrangement; the ultimate source is generally taken to be the root seen in Lat. oriri, rise, arise, begin; cf. " origin ")
• ORDER, HOLY

order that the intensity of a sensation may increase in arithmetical progression, the stimulus must increase in geometrical progression." Though holding See also:

• GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good within certain limits only, the law has been found immensely useful . Unfortunately, from the tenable theory that the intensity of a sensation increases by definite additions of stimulus, Fechner was led on to postulate a unit of sensation, so that any sensation s might be regarded as composed of n See also:

• UNITS, DIMENSIONS OF
• UNITS, PHYSICAL

units . Sensations, he argued, -thus being representable by See also:

• NUMBERS, BOOK OF
• NUMBERS, PARTITION OF

numbers, See also:

• PSYCHOLOGY
• PSYCHOLOGY (>Guxrl, the mind or soul, and X yos, theory)

psychology may become an " exact " See also:

• SCIENCE (Lat. scientia, from scire; to learn, know)

science, susceptible of mathematical treatment . His See also:

• GENERAL
• GENERAL (Lat. generalis, of or relating to a genus, kind or class)

general See also:

• FORMULA
• FORMULA (Lat. diminutive of forma, shape, pattern, &c., especially used of rules of judicial procedure)

formula for getting at the number of units in any sensation is s=c See also:

• LOG (a word of uncertain etymological origin,possibly onomatopoeic; the New English Dictionary rejects the derivation from Norwegian lag, a fallen tree)

log R, where s stands for the sensation, R for the stimulus numerically estimated, and c for a See also:

• CONSTANT, BENJAMIN (1845-1902)

constant that must be separately determined by experiment in each particular order of sensibility . This reasoning of Fechner's has given rise to a See also:

• GREAT

great See also:

• MASS (O.E. maesse; Fr. messe; Ger. Messe; Ital. messa; from eccl. Lat. missa)
• MASS, IN

mass of controversy, but the fundamental See also:

• MISTAKE (i.e. take amiss)

mistake in it is See also:

• SIMPLE

simple .

Though stimuli are composite, sensations are not . " Every sensation," says Professor See also:

• JAMES
• JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
• JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
• JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
• JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
• JAMES, EPISTLE OF
• JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP
• JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
• JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
• JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (d. 1827)

James, " presents itself as an indivisible unit; and it is quite impossible to read any clear meaning into the notion that they are masses of units combined." Still, the See also:

• IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea of the exact measurement of sensation has been a fruitful one, and mainly through his See also:

• INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence on See also:

• WUNDT, WILHELM MAX (1832— )

Wundt, Fechner was the father of that " new " psychology of laboratories which investigates human faculties with the aid of exact scientific apparatus . Though he has had a vast influence in this See also:

• SPECIAL

special See also:

• DEPARTMENT (Fr. departement, from departir, to separate into parts)

department, the disciples of his general See also:

• PHILOSOPHY (Gr. gthos, fond of, and vo4 (a, wisdom)

philosophy are few . His See also:

• WORLD

world-conception is highly animistic . He feels the thrill of life everywhere, in See also:

• PLANTS

plants, See also:

• EARTH
• EARTH (a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Erde, Dutch aarde, Swed. and Dan. jord; outside Teutonic it appears only in the Gr. 'pq'e, on the ground; it has been connected by some etymologists with the Aryan root ar-, to plough, which is seen in
• EARTH, FIGURE OF
• EARTH, FIGURE OF THE

earth, stars, the See also:

• TOTAL

total universe . See also:

• MAN
• MAN, ISLE OF (anc. Mona)

Man stands midway between the souls of plants and the souls of stars, who are angels . See also:

• GOD

God, the soul of the universe, must be conceived as having an existence analogous to men . Natural See also:

• LAWS

laws are just the modes of the unfolding of God's perfection . In his last work Fechner, aged but full of See also:

• HOPE, ANTHONY
• HOPE, THOMAS (c. 1770-1831)

hope, contrasts this joyous " daylight view " of the world with the dead, dreary " See also:

• NIGHT

night view " of See also:

• MATERIALISM (from Lat. materia, matter)

materialism . Fechner's work in See also:

• AESTHETICS

aesthetics is also important . He conducted experiments to show that certain abstract forms and proportions are naturally pleasing to our senses, and gave some new illustrations of the working of aesthetic association . Fechner's position in reference to predecessors and contemporaries is not very sharply defined .

He was remotely a See also:

• DISCIPLE

disciple of See also:

• SCHELLING, FRIEDRICH WILHELM JOSEPH VON (1775-1854)
• SCHELLING, KAROLINE (1763-1809)

Schelling, learnt much from See also:

• HERBART, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1776-1841)

Herbart and See also:

• WEISSE, CHRISTIAN HERMANN (18oi–1866)

Weisse, and decidedly rejected See also:

• HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH (1770-1831)

Hegel and the monadism of See also:

• LOTZE, RUDOLF HERMANN (1817-1881)

Lotze . See W . Wundt, G . Th . Fechner (Leipzig, 1901) ; A . Elsas, " Zum Andenken G . Th . Fechners," in Grenzbote, 1888; J . E . Kuntze, G . Th . Fechner (Leipzig, 1892) ; Karl Lasswitz, G .

Th . Fechner (See also:

• STUTTGART

Stuttgart, 1896 and 19o2); E . B . Titchener, Experimental Psychology (New See also:

• YORK
• YORK (HOUSE OF)
• YORK, EDMUND OF LANGLEY, DUKE OF (1341-1402)
• YORK, EDWARD
• YORK, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF (1763-1827)
• YORK, RICHARD, DUKE

York, 19o5); G . F . Stout, See also:

• MANUAL

Manual of Psychology (1898), bk. ii. ch. vii.; R . Falckenberg, Hist. of Mod . Phil . (Eng. trans., 1895), pp . 6or See also:

• FOIL

foil.; H . See also:

• HOFFDING, HARALD (1843– )

Hoffding, His& of Mod . Phil .

(Eng. trans., r900), vol. ii. pp . 524 foil.; Liebe, Fechners Metaphysik, See also:

• IM(K2+a2+h2—2 ah cos 0)

im Umr!ss dargestellt (1903) . (H .