Gustav Fechner

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Fechner was born at Groß Särchen, near Muskau, in Lower Lusatia, on 19 April 1801. His father, a pastor, died unexpectedly in 1806, leaving the family destitute. Fechner and his elder brother were raised for a few years by a maternal uncle, also a pastor, before reuniting with their mother and sisters in Dresden. He studied medicine for six months at the Medizinische Akademie Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden in 1817, then at the University of Leipzig from 1818, earning his PhD in 1823. In 1834, he was appointed professor of physics at Leipzig. In 1839, he injured his eyes in research on afterimages by gazing at the Sun through colored glasses, and after much suffering, resigned from his position. While recovering, he turned to the study of the mind and its relations with the body. Lying in bed, Fechner had an insight into the relationship between mental sensations and material sensations, which proved significant for the development of psychology.

Reader's Guide

Fechner's epoch-making work was his Elemente der Psychophysik (1860). He started from the monistic thought that bodily facts and conscious facts are different sides of one reality. His originality lies in trying to discover an exact mathematical relation between them. The most famous outcome is Fechner's Law: 'In order that the intensity of a sensation may increase in arithmetical progression, the stimulus must increase in geometrical progression.' The law has been found to be immensely useful, but to fail for very faint and very strong sensations. Fechner also studied the Fechner color effect in 1838, a perceptual illusion where colors are seen in a moving pattern of black and white. In 1871, he reported the first empirical survey of coloured letter photisms among 73 synesthetes. He speculated that splitting the corpus callosum would produce two separate streams of consciousness—a theory later confirmed by Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga. Along with Wilhelm Wundt and Hermann von Helmholtz, Fechner is recognized as one of the founders of modern experimental psychology.

Did You Know?

• Fechner injured his eyes in 1839 by gazing at the Sun through colored glasses while studying afterimages.
• He wrote humorous pieces under the pseudonym 'Dr. Mises,' including Vergleichende Anatomie der Engel (1825).
• Fechner's speculation that splitting the corpus callosum would create two separate streams of consciousness was later confirmed by Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga.
• In 1871, Fechner conducted the first empirical survey of coloured letter photisms among 73 synesthetes.