Elements of Psychophysics, Vol. I

XII

...which I have expressed in earlier works, and I must point the reader toward those if they wish to pursue those concerns, as this is not the right occasion for a more detailed discussion.

The present volume of this work contains the foundations of mental measurement original: "psychisches Mass"; the core concept of psychophysics, which proposes that the intensity of a mental sensation can be measured relative to a physical stimulus—that is, the establishment of its principle and the presentation of the methods, laws, and facts that belong to its empirical foundation. The following volume will develop the mental measurement function original: "psychische Massfunction"; the mathematical formula—now known as Fechner's Law—that relates stimulus to sensation itself, along with its consequences that bridge from the external to the internal world. Consequently, the current volume claims more of an empirical interest, while the following claims more of a mathematical and philosophical interest. It holds a mathematical interest insofar as the field of new applications opened for mathematics in this present part will be explored to certain limits in the next; and a philosophical interest insofar as these applications yield significant viewpoints for the understanding of the relationship between body and soul.