Elements of Psychophysics, Vol. I

...change the standpoint, the side of the circle that we perceive changes, and the other hides behind the one we see. But the circle is only an image metaphor, and the question now concerns the actual matter at hand.

It is not the task or intention of this writing to enter into deep or somehow definitive discussions regarding the fundamental question of the relationship between body and soul original: "Leib und Seele." In German philosophy of this era, "Leib" often refers to the lived, organic body, while "Körper" refers to a physical object; Fechner uses "Leib" here to emphasize the living connection to the soul.. Let each person seek to solve the riddle in their own way, insofar as it appears as such to them. It will therefore be of no binding consequence for what follows if I briefly address this view here with a few words—containing nothing essentially decisive for the further pursuit of this work—simply to avoid leaving the question of the general view which formed the starting point of this writing (and still forms its background for me) entirely unanswered. Simultaneously, I wish to offer a point of reference in this field of wavering ideas to those who are still searching for such a point, rather than believing they have already found it. Despite the great temptation at the beginning of a work such as this to lose oneself in extensive and far-reaching discussions in this regard, and the significant difficulty in avoiding them altogether, the reader will at least excuse the brief exposition of the view to which I shall henceforth limit myself.

First, a second explanatory example to accompany the first. Seen from the sun, the solar system presents a completely different view than it does from the earth. From the sun, it is the Copernican world; from the earth, the Ptolemaic world The Copernican system places the sun at the center, while the Ptolemaic system (the older view) places the earth at the center. Fechner uses this to show how the same reality looks different depending on the observer's location.. It will always remain impossible for the same observer to perceive both world systems simultaneously, despite the fact that both belong inseparably together; just as the concave and convex sides of the circle are, at their root, merely two different modes of appearance original: "Erscheinungsweisen." This is a philosophical term referring to how things present themselves to our senses or consciousness. of the same thing from different standpoints. Again, it is sufficient simply to change the standpoint, and the one world replaces the other in our perception.

The whole world consists of such examples which prove to us that what is a single entity in reality appears as two different things from two different standpoints, and that one cannot possess the same thing from one standpoint as from another. Who would not admit that it is always thus and cannot be otherwise? Only in