Publication Abstracts - BOOKS

TEACHING NONMAJORS: Advice for Liberal Arts Professors, SUNY Press, 2008.
For book news, reviews, and teaching tips, see teachingnonmajors.com
Table of Contents (here)

Abstract: The pulse of the classroom is the heartbeat of the teacher, so Teaching Nonmajors focuses directly on what many dedicated teachers want to know - how can I teach even better to nonmajors in the classroom? Unlike many other books on teaching, this book delivers uncomplicated and immediately useful techniques and strategies for teaching required courses to nonmajors. It provides handy examples, drawn from a variety of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences. It describes easy ways to break up lectures, how to have the best discussions, the art of assignments, how to improve student ratings, and successful strategies for engaging nonmajors and for handling problem students. Teaching Nonmajors is written especially for liberal arts college and university professors at all career stages - from adjuncts and new professors, to seasoned professors looking for a fresh kick heading into a new term.
Teaching Nonmajors at www.suny.edu.
Isbn: 1-4020-3571-3 Hardcover; and Isbn: 978-0-7914-7492-1 Paperback

THE SPHERE OF ATTENTION: Context and Margin, Springer, 2006.
Table of Contents (here)

Abstract: This book uses the latest empirical research to illustrate how attention is organized according to gestalt-phenomenological principles inside and outside the focus of attention. For the first time, The Sphere of Attention  classifies how attention shifts, and argues that self-awareness, reflection, and even morality, are best thought of as dynamic transformations in the sphere of attention. The radical thesis of this book is that attention is always the center of a sphere of attention, which consists in contextual and marginal processing. Together these three organizational dimensions - focus, context, margin - constitute the human being as a sphere of attention. In addition to assessing the most recent laboratory results from prominent psychologists, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists, The Sphere of Attention  also examines the views of phenomenologists such as Gurwitsch, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre. This book demonstrates that gestalt-phenomenology is a powerful new method for investigating human nature.
Sphere at www.springer online.   Isbn: 1-4020-3571-3 Hardcover

INTUITION: The Inside Story: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, co-edited with Robbie Davis-Floyd, N.Y.: Routledge Press, 1997.

Abstract: Science could never have proceeeded whithout the creativity of intuition - yet too often science and intuition are not included as characters in the same story. In this book, scholars from diverse disciplines explore the natrue of intuition and its practical place inthe social, behavioral, and physical sciences. From the perspectives of psychology, anthropology, philosophy, engineering, medicine, and midwifery these contributors present the latest theoretical developments and research on intuition. They discuss the essence and experience of intuition, telling its "inside story" through everyday, often personal, examples from the field to the classroom, and from the laboratory to the hospital.
Intuition at www.routledge.com.
Isbn: 978-0-415-91593-9 Hardcover; and Isbn: 978-0-415-91594-6 Paperback

Publication Abstracts - Peer Reviewed ARTICLES or CHAPTERS

Artistic Reverence, Chapter in The Art of Social Critique: Painting Mirrors of Social Life: editor Shawn Bingham, Lexington Books, 2012, pp. 531-557.

Abstract: This chapter explores the practice of reverence in artistic planning and production, especially as it applies to social criticism and civic engagement. Paul Woodruff defines reverence as the capacity to feel awe, respect or shame, when these are the right feelings to have. Artistic reverence reminds a community or society of their common humanity, and reminds leaders of their proper place. Although reverence is often associated with religious belief, this chapter is not about religion. In fact, reverence is more properly about community and politics. Discussed are artists Lin, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Picasso, Marlowe, Rivera, and sociologist Richard Sennett.

Eportfolios in a Liberal Studies Program: An Experiment in Sustainability, Chapter in Teaching Sustainability and Teaching Sustainably, editors Kirsten Bartels and Kelly Parker, Stylus Publications, 2012.

Abstract: As a result of self-study and program review, the liberal studies program at Seattle University required new majors to start eportfolios to focus interdisciplinary work. There were no campus examples to emulate and budgets were limited. For program faculty, the guiding principle became sustainability, defined as efficient support and continuation of a good in common. This chapter is a practitioner-based report on sustainability of the eportfolios from the program director. It addresses resource conservation, intellectual growth, alumni mission fulfillment, and curricular assessment.

Gurwitsch, Aron, 1500 word entry in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, subject editor Dan Zahavi and general editor Edward Craig, Routledge Press, 2013..

Abstract: Aron Gurwitsch was concerned with how consciousness is organized, especially its invariant, formal structure. His main work, The Field of Consciousness, argues that consciousness is always structured in a three-fold pattern: theme, thematic field, and margin. The theme is the focus of attention, the thematic field is the relevant context, and the margin contains items merely co-present with the theme and its thematic field. Gurwitsch applied his philosophy of organization to wide-ranging issues, including social encounters, logic, culture, and critiques of psychology. Gurwitsch successfully integrated insights from Gestalt psychology and phenomenological philosophy to advance the problem of conscious organization in a way that neither discipline alone could achieve. His insights on attention and consciousness have become increasingly relevant for phenomenology and the cognitive sciences.

Attention in Context, chapter in Handbook of Phenomenology and Cognitive Science, editors Daniel Schmicking and Shaun Gallagher, Springer, 2010, pp. 99-121.

Abstract: This chapter shows that current cognitive science of attention substantially intersects with a gestalt-phenomenology of attention, even if this intersection is not yet effectively articulated by phenomenologists or utilized by experimenters in formulating hypotheses, models, and theories. It also suggests that phenomenology and cognitive science of attention can be co-revelatory in theory and practice.

Attentional Capture and Attentional Character, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2008, 7 (4), pp. 539-562.

Abstract: Attentional character is a way of thinking about what is relevant in a human life, what is meaningful and how it becomes so. This paper introduces the concept of attentional character through a redefinition of attentional capture as achievement. It looks freshly at the attentional capture debate in the current cognitive sciences literature through the lens of Aron Gurwitsch's gestalt-phenomenology. Attentional character is defined as an initially limited capacity for attending in a given environment and is located within the sphere of attention, primarily as an irrelevant centering in attending.

Transparent Teaching, Currents in Teaching and Learning, 2008, 1 (1) pp. 4-16. Co-written with Therese Huston.

Abstract: Transparent teaching involves practices that reveal timely knowledge usually concealed or inadequately disclosed. It entails a willingness to be candid and adventurous in the classroom and the confidence to be honestly self-critical. This article describes examples of how transparent teaching can be practiced in a course, and it draws upon the research literature in higher education and cognitive psychology to illustrate why transparent teaching strategies can meet students' learning needs more successfully than traditional instructional strategies. Each example illustrates how transparent teaching builds trust so that teachers work smarter, and students learn more.

Experimental Evidence for Three Dimensions of Attention, in Gurwitsch's Revelancy for Cognitive Science, editor Lester Embree, Springer, 2004, pp. 151-168.

Abstract: Using recent cognitive scientific research and Aron Gurwitsch's insights, I argue that the structure of attention is best thought of as tri-partite. There are three distinct organizational principles coordinate with three dimensions of attention, and the focus of attention is only one of these three dimensions. Attention is a unified, dynamic embodied processing in the world, but can be seen phenomenologically and experimentally to operate in three distinct dimensions or domains.

A Lexicon of Attention: From Cognitive Science to Phenomenology Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2003, 2 (2), pp. 91-131.

Abstract: I translate and interpret into phenomenological terms 20 key cognitive science concepts as examined in the laboratory and used in leading journals, and outline a phenomenology of attention, especially as a dynamic three-part structure, which I have freely amended from Aron Gurwitsch.

Moral Attention in Encountering You: Gurwitsch and Buber Husserl Studies, 2003, 19 (1), pp. 71-91.

Abstract: The application of Aron Gurwitsch's phenomenology to Martin Buber's relational existentialism yields provocative results. First, Gurwitsch's phenomenology reveals the structure of moral attention in Buber's Ich und Du. Second, persons can use this knowledge of this structure to increase the probability of moral attention.

Transformations in Consciousness: Continuity, the Self, and Marginal Consciousness, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2000, 7 (3), pp. 3-26.

Abstract: : The term "consciousness" is usually reserved only for the focus of attention. But following Aron Gurwitsch, conscious presentations are structured in a focus, context, and margin pattern. Contra Galen Strawson, I argue that there is significant attentional and temporal continuity in consciousness.

Bringing Context into Focus: Parallels in the Psychology of Attention and the Philosophy of Science, The Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 1998, 29 (1), pp. 50-91.

Abstract: : The phenomenon of attentional context has been underappreciated. Through the lens of Aron Gurwitsch's phenomenology of attention, I evaluate how context is or is not brought into focus in experimental psychology and philosophy of science. I conclude that recent developments in both realms show promise.

Looking Intuit: A Phenomenological Investigation of Intuition and Attention, Chapter in Intuition: The Inside Story: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, co-edited with Robbie Davis-Floyd, Routledge Press, 1997, pp. 39-56.

Abstract: This chapter asks "What is the shape of consciousness in intuition?" Inspired by phenomenologist Aron Gurwitsch, I show how the transformation in attention called "synthesis" is the crucial issue in responding to such a question.

Relevance and Aesthetic Perception in To Work at the Foundations: Essays in Memory of Aron Gurwitsch, Evans, C. and Shufflebeam, A., (eds.), Contributions to Phenomenology Series, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997, pp. 131-140.

Abstract: Based on Aron Gurwitsch's field-theory, I sketch a phenomenology of the emergence of the aesthetic object and the aesthetic attitude in terms of attention. The aesthetic moment involves attentional enlargement and an attitude of freedom, it is also radically dynamic and momentary.

Toward a Phenomenology of Attention, Human Studies: A Journal for Philosophy and the Social Sciences, 1996, 19, pp. 71-84.

Abstract: After illustrating the nature of attention as described by Aron Gurwitsch, I critique the assumptions of current psychological research on attention. I conclude that a credible account of attention is crucial to the success of any comprehensive statement of the nature of consciousness.

Stability and Achievement in Richard Lind's Aesthetic Theory, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1993, 51 (4), pp. 619-622.

Abstract: Richard Lind has formulated a field-theory that attempts to account for the presentation of the aesthetic object. Drawing from Aron Gurwitsch and Gestalt principles, I argue that Lind cannot sufficiently account for perceptual stability and that his approach misses the character of perceptual achievement.

The Field of Consciousness: James and Gurwitsch, Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy, 1992, 28 (4), pp. 833-856.

Abstract: : In articulating Aron Gurwitsch's emendation of James, I argue for a three part instead of a two part structure of the field of consciousness. I discuss Gurwitsch's notions of thematic field and Gestalt connection, and James' notions of temporality, margin, and fringe.

On the Origin of Organization in Consciousness, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 1992, 23 (1), pp. 53-65.

Abstract: This paper reconstructs the argument for the origin of organization in consciousness crucial to Aron Gurwitsch's overall philosophical project, explicates it by presenting Gurwitsch's critique of William James on this issue, and discusses a possible counter-case to Gurwitsch's claims.

Hegel on the Nature and Status of the Concept in Kant's Critical Philosophy, Kinesis, 1986, 15 (2), pp.88-106.

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to describe how Hegel's "science of logic" responds to crucial problems created by Kant's "critique of pure reason". After tracing the problem of self-consciousness in the "critique", an analysis of Hegel's criticisms of Kant's notion of the concept is presented as it appears in the "logic". This descriptive analysis is organized in terms of the problems of sense intuition, dialectic, and the thing in itself.