Zurück zu Fechner? Il neokantismo e le sfide della psicologia scientifica

This essay addresses the attitude of

some leading Neo-Kantian philosophers toward

scientific psychology and psychophysics. Early influential

figures like Friedrich A. Lange counted

Gustav T. Fechner’s psychophysical law among

their allies in the rehabilitation of the Kantian

standpoint. Later on, however, Neo-Kantian philosophers

firmly rejected psychological measurement

as a whole (Eduard Zeller) and harshly

criticized the methods adopted by several psychologists

of their time. For example, the Marburg

mathematician and philosopher August Stadler reduced

the validity of Fechner’s law to the mere

physiological sphere, and Hermann Cohen conceived

the application of mathematical integration

to human sensations as an inane enterprise.