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The French version of this book, Théorie du champ de la conscience (1957), appeared under the auspices of the International Phenomenological Society. This present version appears through the collaboration of the staff of the Duquesne Studies, Psychological Series. In writing this book, I wanted to make it a phenomenological study, not a book about phenomenology. The intention was to advance c- tain phenomenological problems rather than to present a survey of or a report on phenomenology. My point of view is that of the pheno- nologist at work, not of an observer of a methodology from without. While it appeared desirable to expound in a detailed manner some of Husserl s notions and theories which have importance for phenomen- ogy as a whole, I have con?ned my treatment to those which have direct and immediate reference to the problems treated in this study. The manuscript of this book was completed in 1953 before the appe- ance of several volumes of Husserliana among which vol. VI, Die Krisis der Europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie (1954), and vol. IX, Phänomenologische Psychologie (1962), have particular bearing upon the problems dealt with in this book. Also the most recent presentation of Gestalt theory by W. Metzger, Psychologie (1st ed. 1940, 2nd ed. 1954) did not come to my attention before the completion of the manuscript.
List of contents
General Problems of Organization in Consciousness.- Author's Introduction.- The Problem of Dimensional Differences Between Conjunctions of Phases of Experience.- Origin of Organization.- Grouping and Organization of Sense-Data.- Some Principles of Gestalt Psychology.- Some Principles of Gestalt Psychology.- Some Fundamental Concepts of Constitutive Phenomenology.- Some Fundamental Concepts of Constitutive Phenomenology.- Phenomenological Theory of Perception.- The Perceptual Process.- Analysis of the Perceptual Noema.- Noetic Analysis of Perception.- The Thematic Field.- The Thematic Field.- Ontological Problems, Conclusion &Appendix.- Ontological Problems.- Marginal Consciousness.- The Self-Awareness of Consciousness.- The Empirical Psychic Ego.- The Awareness Of Embodied Existence.- Awareness of the Perceptual World.- The [Somatic] Ego in the Perceptual World.
Summary
This volume contains Gurwitsch's magnum opus, which emphasizes how items in the thematic field are relevant to the theme. It is introduced by his student Richard Zaner. This volume also includes the posthumous text, Marginal Consciousness.
