Aron Gurwitsch

Aron Gurwitsch (Russian: Аро́н Гу́рвич; 17 January 1901 – 25 June 1973) was a Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) American phenomenologist.

Life

Gurwitsch was born in Vilna on 17 January 1901. His family moved to Danzig in 1905 or 1906 to escape pogroms. He enrolled in the University of Berlin in 1918, where he studied under Carl Stumpf. He subsequently worked with Edmund Husserl in Göttingen, and with Adhémar Gelb and Kurt Goldstein in Frankfurt.

He died on 25 June 1973 in Zürich.

Work

Gurwitsch wrote on the relations between phenomenology and Gestalt psychology, 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. 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, among others. Notable students of Gurwitsch include Lester Embree and Henry E. Allison.

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

See also

• Transcendental phenomenology

External links

• www.gurwitsch.net
  • biography (by Lester Embree)
  • chronology with photos