Sphere of Attention

The Sphere of Attention 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, this book 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.