Nature from within

the long version

"Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887) was a German physicist, psychologist, and philosopher, best known to historians of science as the founder of psychophysics (the experimental study of the relation between mental and physical processes) and the grandfather of experimental psychology." "In Nature from Within, Michael Heidelberger examines Fechner and his work from three perspectives: history, philosophy, and what Fechner called his "day view" approach to study across fields. Along with biographical information and a characterization of Fechner's writings, Heidelberger begins by describing Fechner's background with respect to intellectual history. He then focuses on Fechner's philosophy of science and on the philosopher's efforts to demonstrate that science could accept the identity of the psychical and the physical in an empirically clear and phenomenological interpretation. The book closes with a discussion of the significance of Fechner's philosophical methodology for branches of natural science and their respective underlying philosophies."--BOOK JACKET.