The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

“Classical” psychophysics originated with the work of Fechner, which in turn was inspired by Weber’s observations, and evolved into more modern approaches in the second half of the last century. In this chapter I tell the story of these developments, which contributed to the foundation of scientific psychology, provided techniques for a variety of sensory-related technologies, and paved the way for unexpected applications to domains such as the measurement of happiness, pain, and choices.