A couple of my students asked me if it was generally known that Fechner was Dr. Mises, at the time he was using that pseudonym. Can anyone enlighten us?

Whit

-- Harry A. Whitaker (hwhitake@nmu.edu), March 15, 2001

Answers

Whit,

Perhaps your students have already found this, but on p. 267 of Boring's _History_ (1929 ed.), it says that Fechner's *first* publication (1821) was under the name of Dr. Mises. If it was his first publication, then he wouldn't have been widely known (indeed, he wouldn't even receive his medical degree until the following year) and so the question of Mises "really" being Fechner wouldn't have come up (except, I suppose, among his circle of acquaintances in Leipzig). On the other hand, Dr. Mises would return to publish fourteen times, Boring says, between 1821 and 1876. It does not say, and I do not know, how widely the true identity of Mises became known in the intervening half century+. Hope this helps.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), March 15, 2001.

Please see: Grundlach, H. U. K. (1986). Dr. Mises and Mr. Fechner: How early was their identity uncovered? American Psychologist, v. 41, 582-583.

This was the defining comment on the question published in American Psychologist. Quoting from Grundlach(1986), "Rassmann's (1830) dictionary of German pseudonyms explained in full biographical detail that Dr. Mises is no other that Gustav Theodor Fechner (p. 122)." (p. 583)

-- Roger K. Thomas (rkthomas@uga.edu), March 17, 2001.

Roger Thomas was kind enough to cite my little article. I must, however, insist that my name is Gundlach, not Grundlach which is only a spelling mistake, and not even a pseudonym.

Best wishes

Horst Gundlach

-- Horst Gundlach (gundlach@uni-passau.de), October 22, 2001.