Overview
- Details the story of the idea which made the mathematisation of desire possible
- Explores the ideas of Ernst Webber, the psychologist who developed psychophysics
- Explores how psycophysics developed into contemporary psychology
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About this book
This book explores the concept of psychophysics and details the development of the ideas which made the mathematisation of desire possible. The experience of desire accompanies us all throughout life, but dealing with it as psychologists and scientists is far from easy. Psychophysics was conceived to help map, mathematically, these unknowable feelings of desire. As such, this book will help to provide an accessible account of psychophysics while telling the story of its creation, which was, in essence, the birth of scientific psychology and contemporary cognitive neuroscience, alongside many of the technologies which characterize the contemporary world. It is a strange and intriguing story, which begins with the German physiologist Ernst Heinrich Weber in the first half of the nineteenth century, and its story will help the reader gain fresh insight into how scientists came to be able to map and quantify complex and private emotional states.
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Nicola Bruno is Professor of General Psychology at The University of Parma, Italy.
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Bibliographic Information
Book Title: A Conceptual History of Psychophysics
Book Subtitle: Ernst Weber’s Law of Desire
Authors: Nicola Bruno
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66597-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and Psychology, Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-66596-7Published: 25 August 2024
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-66599-8Published: 26 August 2025
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-66597-4Published: 24 August 2024
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 75
Number of Illustrations: 10 b/w illustrations
Topics: Neuropsychology, Biological Psychology, Psychology, general, Cognitive Psychology