The Collected Works of Aron Gurwitsch (1901-1973). Volume III, The field of consciousness : phenomenology of theme, thematic field and marginal consciousness

This volume of the Collected Works edition 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," the contents of which were merely summarized in The Field of Consciousness. It presents his positions on the body and on ego-less consciousness in detail. Gurwitsch's student, Lester Embree, introduces it. For the full appreciation of their significance, all earlier and later writings by Gurwitsch must be related to the contents of this volume. The first of a planned six volumes of Gurwitsch's writings, this volume contains, above all, the English translation of his Equisse de phénoménologie constitutive, the text based on his four lecture courses at Institute d'Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques at the Sorbonne during the 1930s. These lectures were regularly attended by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The book relates Husserlian or constitutive phenomenology to modern first philosophy and the philosophy of the human as well as the natural sciences and was nearly finished when Gurwitsch had to flee to the United States before Germany conquered France. In addition, this volume contains what is in effect Gurwitsch's autobiographical sketch, critical reviews of works by Gaston Berger, Jean Hering, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Maurice Pradines, and Ives Simone, members of the French intellectual milieu of the 1930s when French phenomenology initially developed, and also two originally unpublished essays from that period. Finally, there are three essays and two reviews from Gurwitsch's American period in which phenomenological philosophy and especially his revised account of the noema are also placed in historical perspective Front Matter....Pages i-xxxv Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Author’s Introduction....Pages 1-10 The Problem of Dimensional Differences Between Conjunctions of Phases of Experience....Pages 13-21 Origin of Organization....Pages 23-53 Grouping and Organization of Sense-Data....Pages 55-82 Front Matter....Pages 83-83 Some Principles of Gestalt Psychology....Pages 85-148 Front Matter....Pages 149-149 Some Fundamental Concepts of Constitutive Phenomenology....Pages 151-191 Front Matter....Pages 193-194 The Perceptual Process....Pages 195-219 Analysis of the Perceptual Noema....Pages 221-271 Noetic Analysis of Perception....Pages 273-298 Front Matter....Pages 299-299 The Thematic Field....Pages 301-365 Front Matter....Pages 367-367 Ontological Problems....Pages 369-402 Back Matter....Pages 403-409 Front Matter....Pages 411-449 The Self-Awareness of Consciousness....Pages 451-464 The Empirical Psychic Ego....Pages 465-475 The Awareness Of Embodied Existence....Pages 477-491 Awareness of the Perceptual World....Pages 493-506 The [Somatic] Ego in the Perceptual World....Pages 507-518 Back Matter....Pages 519-556 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.