Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:39:32.523Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 23 - Fechner

from Part IV - Mind, Body, Spirit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2020

Charles Youmans
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
Get access

Summary

The physicist, psychophysicist, physician, and philosopher Gustav Theodor Fechner – an intellectual force occupying Mahler from his student years in Vienna through the composition of Das Lied von der Erde – is often described as a “mystic” or a “speculative thinker” whose fantastical philosophical system attempts to reconcile mechanistic science with an “animistic non-rational world-view.” Accordingly, his theories are usually dismissed today as curiosities. But though Fechner’s views may appear strange, on closer examination they are not mere arbitrary convictions; rather, they have a rational foundation. Furthermore, it can be demonstrated that Fechner, unorthodox thoughts notwithstanding, made important contributions to the natural sciences: particularly in the notions of “psychophysical parallelism” of the “day view,” a response to contemporaneous materialist and mechanistic orientations. The basic details of these Fechnerian ideas are presented here, along with an account of his early reception.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mahler in Context , pp. 198 - 206
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×