Modern Consciousness Science as Fechner's "Inner Psychophysics"

Faw, Bill (2007) Modern Consciousness Science as Fechner's "Inner Psychophysics". In: 11th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, June 22-25, 2007, Las Vegas, NV.

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Gustav Fechner (1860) wanted to study “constant or lawful relationships” between the “material world” and the “mental world”, which “has up to now remained merely a field for philosophical argument without solid foundation and without sure principles and methods for the progress of inquiry”. He called his techniques "outer psycho-physics": deriving bridge laws between physics (presenting tones) and psyche (reporting which has a higher pitch), but, for then, ignoring mediating physiology. Fechner anticipated a later "inner psychophysics" to develop bridge laws between physics and physiology (brain processing of stimulus energy), and bridge laws between physiology and psyche. Subsequent psychophysiology works on bridging physics and physiology while physiological psychology works on bridging physiology and psyche. Recent technologies in brain scanning represent a sophisticated development of psychophysiology, creating the new field of Consciousness Science, which uses all of the techniques of outer and inner psychophysics to understand very specific parts of the "psyche" – differentiating among conscious, pre-conscious, subliminal, and non-conscious: perceptual, mental, emotional, and motor functioning -- precisely the science that fulfills Fechner's projection for an "inner psychophysics"! Dominant paradigms in modern Consciousness Studies include Perceptual-, Cognitive-, Interpersonal, Animal-, Infant-, Machine-, Altered-, Expanded, Transpersonal-, Motivational-, and Quantum-Consciousness/ Unconsciousness.

Comments/Discussion

This poster helps bridge the historical and conceptual gap between 19th Century Psychophysics and 21C Consciousness Science. Fechner's concept of "inner psychophysics" is not well known in modern Consciousness Science.

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