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What is Psychophysics?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Lawrence A. Shapiro
Lawrence A. Shapiro*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Extract

Gustav Fechner published his monumental Elemente der Psychophysik in 1860. In the years to follow the book became the object of such intense criticism and such caustic invective that Fechner, prophetically, observed: “The tower of Babel was never finished because the workers could not reach an understanding on how they should build it; my psychophysical edifice will stand because the workers will never agree on how to tear it down” (Stevens 1957, 153). Fechner was right. Here we are, 134 years later, and psychophysics is still with us. Moreover, if it's true that psychophysics thrives on disagreement then likely it will be around for another millennium, for there is currently even less accord about what psychophysics is and whether it is possible than there was when Fechner was alive. Some psychophysicists retain Fechner's view of psychophysics and so claim to be searching for laws relating our sensory experience of the world to physical magnitudes in the world.

Type
Part II. Philosophy of Psychology as Philosophy of Science
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1994 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1994 , 1994 , pp. 47 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

1

For helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper I am grateful to Malcolm Forster, Gary Hatfield, Eric Saidel, and Elliott Sober.

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