On Mon, 22 Oct 2012 05:39:32 -0700, William Scott wrote: > >October 22, 1850 > >A day to celebrate psychophysics!!!
*crickets chirping* But seriously, folks, how many people in world actually (a) understand what psychophysics is and (b) associate Fechner with psychophysics? Consider: if you go over to Amazon.com and search for Fechner, Michael Heidelberger's biography of Fechner appears first but most of the books by Fechner are about his "other" interests such as his "The Little Book About Life After Death"; see: http://www.amazon.com/little-book-life-after-death/dp/B004SWD7DS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1350912022&sr=8-3&keywords=gustav+theodor+fechner And though one can get Fechner's "Elemente der Psychophysik" in German for free for the Kindle (see: http://www.amazon.com/Elemente-Psychophysik-German-Edition-ebook/dp/B004UO3I4C/ref=sr_1_45?ie=UTF8&qid=1350911519&sr=8-45&keywords=gustav+theodor+fechner ) it is hard to get the (partial) English translation of "The Elements of Psychophysics" by Helmut Adler (Trivia Note: I once shared an office with Helmut for several years when he was very old; he had framed pictures of various psychologists from the 19th century and early 20th century and when students came for office hours and asked who was in the photos I responded "Oh, those are Prof. Adler's drinking buddies." ;-); see: http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Psychophysics-Gustav-Fechner/dp/B0000CN24K/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350911622&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=%22gustav+theodor+fechner%22+adler I have to ask: How seriously can one take "Fechner Day" if we don't don't have a complete English translation of his "Elements of Psychophysics"? Helmut only translated volume I and never got around to translating volume II. Unfortunately, he died in 2001 and never translated volume II though he did write about Fechner and Helmholtz. For more on Helmut Adler, see John Hogan's obituary: Hogan, J. D. (2002). Helmut E. Adler (1920–2001). History Of Psychology, 5(2), 201-203. doi:10.1037/1093-4510.5.2.201 Well, I guess one could always use the Fechner jigsaw puzzle to inspire interest in him and psychophysics; see: http://www.amazon.com/Jigsaw-Theodor-Fechner-Mary-Evans/dp/B0081PUXGW/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1350911445&sr=8-8&keywords=gustav+theodor+fechner Or maybe not. Okay, I'll give you that some people are still interested in Fechner and psychophysics, why there's an "International Society for Psychophysics" that dutifully observes Fechner Day; see: http://www.ispsychophysics.org/fechner-day.html And they just had their meeting in Ottawa, eh? See: http://www.fechnerday.com/FD2012/ Finally, I have to admit that when I do mention Fechner and October 22 in class I usually say "And like Fechner, I do my best work in bed." ;-) -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. Shout out to Hugh Foley: Do you still carry on the tradition of observing Fechner Day that Dave Cross tried to maintain? Or am I recalling a false memory from my graduate school days? --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=21234 or send a blank email to leave-21234-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
