Aron Gurwitsch (russian: Аро́н Гу́рвич; 17 January 1901,

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

Vilna Governorate The Vilna Governorate (1795–1915; also known as Lithuania-Vilnius Governorate from 1801 until 1840; russian: Виленская губерния, ''Vilenskaya guberniya'', lt, Vilniaus gubernija, pl, gubernia wileńska) or Government of V ...

– 25 June 1973, Zurich) was a Litvak

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

phenomenologist.

Work

Gurwitsch wrote on the relations between phenomenology and

Gestalt psychology Gestalt-psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a theory of perception that was a rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt's and Edward T ...

, and in the problems of the organization of consciousness. In particular, he distinguished between the theme, the thematic context and the margin. This is the core of his theory of the Field of Consciousness. He also has his own theory of the noema, the horizon and the transcendental ego. Gurwitsch was an important influence for

Merleau-Ponty Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty. (; 14 March 1908 – 3 May 1961) was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest an ...

. He taught at Brandeis University in the mid-1950s. He taught at The New School For Social Research's Graduate Faculty of Social and Political Science from 1959 to 1973.

Academic genealogy

He was a student of

Moritz Geiger Moritz Geiger (26 June 1880 – 9 September 1937) was a German philosophy, German philosopher and a disciple of Edmund Husserl. He was a member of the Munich phenomenological school. Beside Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, he dedicated h ...

, among others. Notable students of Gurwitsch include Lester Embree and

Henry E. Allison Henry Edward Allison (born April 25, 1937) is a scholar of Immanuel Kant, widely considered to be one of the most eminent English-language Kant scholars of the postwar era. He is Emeritus Professor at the University of California, San Diego and Bo ...

Bibliography

* ''Théorie du champ de la conscience'' (1957). Translated: ''Field of Consciousness'', Pittsburgh, Pa.: Dusquesne University Press (1964). * ''Studies in phenomenology and psychology''. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press (1966). * ''Leibniz'', New York: de Gruyter (1974). * ''Phenomenology and the Theory of Science''. Edited by Lester Embree. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press (1974). * ''Kants Theories des Verstandes'', edited by Thomas Seebohm. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers (1990). * ''The Collected Works of Aron Gurwitsch (1901–1973)'' published by Springer. ** Vol. I: ''Constitutive Phenomenology in Historical Perspective'' ** Volume II: ''Studies in Phenomenology and Psychology'' ** Volume III: ''The Field of Consciousness: Theme, Thematic Field, and Margin

External links

www.gurwitsch.net
*

(by Lester Embree) *

with photos 1901 births 1973 deaths Lithuanian Jews American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Jewish philosophers 20th-century Lithuanian philosophers Phenomenologists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States {{Europe-philosopher-stub

Work

Academic genealogy

Bibliography

See also

External links