Gustav Theodor Fechner
1801–87
German physicist, philosopher, and psychophysicist. MD, Leipzig, 1822; but never practised. Professor of physics, Leipzig, 1834–9. Suffered a breakdown in 1839, resuming academic life in 1843, when he began to lecture on philosophy, ethics, and the mind–body problem. Founded the discipline of psychophysics, which he described as the scientific study of the functional relations between body and mind. Introduced statistical methods of psychophysical measurement.
Sources
DBE
DSB.
Bibliography
DBE: Deutsche biographische Enzyklopädie. Edited by Walter Killy et al. 12 vols. in 14. Munich: K. G. Saur. 1995–2000.
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
