The Sphere of Attention: Context and Margin

ISBN-13: 9789048169016 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 218 str.

P. Sven Arvidson

Opis

The phone call came mid-afternoon in February of 1996. The program chair for the annual meeting for the Southern Society of Philosophy and Psychology wanted to make sure he had the facts right. "This is somewhat unusual..." he began. "You're a philosophy professor who wants to present to psychologists in the psychology portion of the meeting." "That's right." "Well your paper was accepted for that part of the program but the others just wanted me to check and make sure that's where you want to be presenting." "That's right." Reassured, the professor wished me luck and said good-bye. In my session at the meeting, I was the last to present. As my time approached, the medium-sized room slowly became crowded. I dreamed that these psychologists had left their other meetings early to make sure to catch my presentation on the use of metaphors in attention research. As I arose to present I noticed that the half-full room had become standing room only Finally, after years of feeling as if I was struggling alone in promoting and defending a phenomenology of attention, I had an eager audience for my message. My persistence had paid off. I delivered my message with passion.

Spis treści

Preface.- The Sphere of Attention is Theme, Context, and Margin.-Theme is Central Focus.- Thematic Context is Relevancy.- Margin is Streaming, Body, and Environing World.- The Field vs. Sphere Metaphor of Attention.- Problems of Context in Psychology and Cognitive Science.- Empirical Evidence for the Sphere of Attention.- Theme and Margin in the Sphere of Attention.- Context in the Sphere of Attention.- Bringing Context into Focus.- Positional Index.- Theme, Context, and Margin in the Sphere of Attention.- Transformations in Attending.- How Context Shifts in Attending.- Enlargement.- Contraction.- Elucidation.- Obscuration.- Context-replacement.- How Thematic Attention Shifts Simply.- How Thematic Attention Shifts Radically.- Restructuring.- Singling out.- Synthesis.- How Attention Captures Marginal Content.- Attending is a Dynamic Tension.- Gurwitsch and Husserl on Attention.- Gurwitsch’s Critique of Husserl.- The Ego and Subjectivity Problem.- Two-Strata of the Theme Problem.- The Unitary Attention Problem.- Does Husserl Distinguish Theme, Context, and Margin?.- Evidence from Husserl’s Analyses Concerning Passive and Active Synthesis.- Husserl and Gurwitsch on Transformations in Attending.- Subjectivity and the Sphere of Attention.- The Ever-Present Self.- Attentionality Replaces Intentionality.- Reflection.- Authentic Reflection.- Sartre.- Buddhism.- Morality and the Sphere of Attention.- The Moral Moment.- Moral Attention is Compassion.- Shifting Out of Moral Attention.- Shifting Into Moral Attention.- Moral Character in the Sphere of Attention.- Conclusion.- Implications for Psychology and the Cognitive Sciences.- Implications for Phenomenology.- Interdisciplinary Attention Studies.- References.- Name Index.- Subject Index.