To Work at the Foundations

Aron Gurwitsch (1900-73) was one of the most important figures in the phenomenological movement between the 1920s and the 1970s. Through his introduction of Gestalt theoretical concepts into phenomenology, he exerted a powerful influence on Maurice Merleau-Ponty and others. The contributions to this memorial volume, most written by friends and students of Gurwitsch, contain critical studies of the work of Aron Gurwitsch and attempts to extend his philosophical analyses to new problems and fields. Ranging from formal ontology through the philosophy of the social sciences to the interpretation of Kant, the essays assembled here are both a tribute to and a continuation of the philosophical legacy of Aron Gurwitsch. The contributions will be of interest to advanced undergraduates and graduate students, and to specialists in a wide range of areas.

I. Aron Gurwitsch the Philosopher. - 1. Keynote Address: Concerning Aron Gurwitsch. - 2. The Philosophy of Aron Gurwitsch. - II. Critical Studies of the Philosophy of Aron Gurwitsch. - 3. Gurwitsch s Interpretation of Kant: Reflections of a Former Student. - 4. Phenomenalism, Idealism and Gurwitsch s Account of the Sensory Noema. - 5. Conditional Identity and Irregular Parts: Aron Gurwitsch s Gestalt-Theoretic Revision of the Stumpf-Husserl Conception of Independence. - III. Gurwitschean Themes in Philosophy. - 6. Relevance and Aesthetic Perception. - 7. A Gurwitschean Model for Explaining Culture or How to Use an Atlatl. - IV. Philosophy in the Spirit of Aron Gurwitsch. - 8. On the Difference Between Transcendental and Empirical Subjectivity. - 9. On Confronting Species-Specific Skepticism as We Near the End of the Twentieth Century. - 10. To Whom It May Concern: The Question of the Philosophic Interlocutor. - 11. Beyond Foundationalism and Functionalism: Phenomenology in Exchange with the Human and Social Sciences. - V. A Bibliography for Gurwitsch Studies.