Aron Gurwitsch 1901 – 1973
Aron Gurwitsch was a Lithuanian-born American phenomenologist whose long career carried Husserlian phenomenology through Berlin, Paris, and the New School for Social Research in New York. After early Berlin study under Carl Stumpf, he combined phenomenological description with the results of Gestalt psychology in his Theory of the Field of Consciousness, arguing that consciousness is field-organized rather than a succession of discrete impressions and that every act of perception is set against a horizon of co-given features. His Studies in Phenomenology and Psychology and Phenomenology and the Theory of Science extended this analysis to the phenomenology of social life and of scientific knowledge.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Lithuanian-American
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Phenomenology
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Aron Gurwitsch:
“Consciousness is field-organized, not point-by-point.”
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Attributed to Aron Gurwitsch:
“Every act of perception involves a horizon of co-given features.”
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Attributed to Aron Gurwitsch:
“Phenomenology must take Gestalt psychology seriously.”
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Attributed to Aron Gurwitsch:
“The non-egological theory of consciousness liberates phenomenology from idealist excess.”
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Attributed to Aron Gurwitsch:
“Meaning is constituted in the interplay of theme and field.”