A few points:
(1) Regarding Hall's use of the iceberg. I cam across his
use of it in "Founders of Modern Psychology" but the typical
problem here is that Hall does not provide a specific reference
for Fechner's use of the metaphor. Fechner does not use it
in the first volume of the "Elements of Psychophysics" which
was translated into English by Helmut Adler (we shared an
office at Yeshiva University when I taught there; Boring and
others never got the funds to pay him to translate Volume 2).
Again, during the "Great Iceberg Hunt", it had become clear
(at least to me) that the metaphor predates Fechner's use,
with Herbart being one possible source in the 19th century.
It is possible that iceberg pre-dates the 19th century but
I think we've given up looking for such things.
(2) The original story for the dream comes from Fechner's
1851 "Zend-Avesta : Gedanken über die Dinge des Himmels
und des Jenseits" also known as "Life After Death" (the 1943
edition seems to be the preferred English Translation) which
is available on Amazon in English:
http://www.amazon.com/After-Death-Gustav-Theodor-Fechner/dp/1417982179/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445541416&sr=8-2&keywords=fechner+%22life+after+death%22
Also see the issue of Psychological Research cited below.
(3) For a more detailed story about "Fechner's Day", here is
an excerpt from the following article:
Scheerer, E. (1987). The unknown Fechner. Psychological
Research, 49(4), 197-202.
Quote begins:
|"Fechner Day": some doubts
|
|History is often invoked in order to increase the respectability
|of a discipline. It seems that for this purpose it does
|not matter whether the history is real or imaginary. Psychophysics
|is a good example. It has a founding father Fechner -
|and even a foundation date: 22 October 1850.
|Apparently some psychophysical laboratories celebrate
|22 October as "Fechner Day". Why?
|
|According to Stevens (1975, p. 7) on 22 October 1850
|"Fechner was wondering how to connect the inner world
|of sensation with the outer world of stimuli ... The possibility
|occurred to him that each time the stimulus is doubled
|there is added a constant increment to the sensation". In
|short, Fechner "contemplated a stimulus-response relation"
|(ibid., p. 19). Stevens also relates that "Fechner, in
|1850, espoused the view that error itself provides a unit of
|measurement. He called it the just noticeable difference"
|(Stevens, 1960, p. 227). Perhaps echoing Stevens, Warren
|(1981, p. 175) asserts that on the fateful day Fechner "reasoned
|that, for any given sensation, the just noticeable difference
|steps in sensory intensity are subjectively equal,
|and that by adding up the number of such steps we have a
|measure of sensory intensity", an idea which presumably
|was originated by Fechner's satirical alter ego, Dr. Mises
|(ibid., p. 189).
|
|What did in fact happen on 22 October 1850? In the
|second (untranslated) volume of the Elemente Fechner
|gives us the following account. He had long pondered the
|idea that "the intensity of the mental activity could be proportional
|to the change of intensity of the underlying bodily
|activity". Then the "schema of geometrical series, by a
|somewhat vague reasoning, suggested to me (on the morning
|of 22 October 1850, in bed) making the relative increase
|of the bodily energy ... the measure of the increase
|of the corresponding mental intensity" (Fechner, 1860, II,
|p. 554; last part of the translation from Boring, 1950, p.280).
|He does not talk of stimulus-response relations because
|he is interested in what he later called "inner psychophysics"
|i.e., the relation between mental activity and
|its most proximate physical correlate. He does not mention
|variability. Nor does he mention just noticeable differences
|and their subjective equality, because at that time he
|did not know Weber's law. The fundamental formula and
|the measurement formula (i.e., the logarithmic law) were
|there, but "as it were they were still floating freely in the
|air" (Fechner, op.cit., p. 556).
|
|A fuller, non-retrospective account of Fechner's insights
|in 1850 is given in Appendix II of the second volume
|of Zend-Avesta (1851), which is presented here as the
|first of our translated selections (Fechner, 1987a). Readers
|of his "Outline of a New Principle of Mathematical Psychology"
|will agree that the historical accounts quoted
|above are inaccurate. Basically, they project back to 1850
|the approach taken by Fechner in the Elements and in a
|brief preliminary paper (1858). Perhaps "Fechner Day"
|celebrations should be shifted to his birthday (19 April
|1801). But even then they would presuppose that Fechnerian
|and present-day psychophysics have more in common
|than a name and a certain methodology. However,
|even this is doubtful.
See the rest of Scheerer's article to see how Harvard mucked
up Fechner's legacy.
So, if you want to celebrate today go right ahead -- the New York
Mets are going to the WORLD SERIES BABY!!!!
And this is from a Yankees fan! ;-)
-Mike Palij
New York University
m...@nyu.edu
On Thu, 22 Oct 2015 07:03:12 -0700,Christopher Green wrote:
I hadn't seen the iceberg metaphor there. Thanks. He also used it in
an earlier article. I don't have the reference with me here on the
subway, but you can find it in my article in European Journal of
Developmental Psychology this year. I'm not sure where Fechner's
dream story comes from. Did he write an autobiography. Perhaps
in the Elements of Psychophysics itself.
On Oct 22, 2015, at 9:32 AM, Ken Steele wrote:
Hi Chris:
Do you know the original source of the October 22 dream story? I
have been
trying to track it down.
On a somewhat related note, I was reading the G. S. Hall (1912)
chapter on
Fechner in "Founders of Modern Psychology" when I spotted Hall's use
of the
iceberg metaphor on p. 171.
https://archive.org/stream/foundersofmodern00halluoft#page/170/mode/2up
On 10/22/2015 8:42 AM, Christopher Green wrote:
Today celebrates the anniversary of the morning on which Gustav
Theodor
Fechner achieved his glorious psychophysical enlightenment!! Happy
Fechner
Day everyone!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Fechner
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