Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Topics in Education

Titel: Topics in Education

Stichwort: Von der Regionalpsychologie zum Bewusstseinsstrom; Horizont - Profi (Abschattung - Horizont, Husserl), Welt

Kurzinhalt: THE DEVELOPING SUBJECT; From Faculty Psychology to Flow of Consciousness; What is this world? We will begin with a distinction between profile and horizon; eg: Horizont = die hinreichende Zahl von Profilen

Textausschnitt: 10/4 Now the flow of consciousness has a fundamental autonomy. Consciousness is not a market place into which there enters anything whatever, according to its own laws, and from which there departs anything whatever, according to its own laws. Consciousness is a structured unity. It is true that things force themselves upon us, upon our consciousness. The well into which Thales tumbled forced itself upon his consciousness. Again, it is true that consciousness is not completely autonomous, that it cannot run off in any direction it pleases. The limits to the autonomy or freedom of consciousness are exhibited in psychic illness. The orientation of consciousness can get out of touch with the demands of the nervous system. So there are two extremes: things can be forced upon consciousness, and consciousness cannot run off in any direction whatever. But normally consciousness is a directed organization of selected data. And governing that direction and selection is our concern, what we care about, care for, are interested in, aim at. Heidegger's term is Sorge, care; 'concern' is the ordinary English translation. The same notion reappears in such words as 'attention' and 'interest.' One can walk along the street with a friend and in the midst of all sorts of street noises hear just that thin trickle of sound that are his words. Meaning makes his voice audible. That is an example of the selectivity of consciousness. There are all sorts of impressions made upon our sensitive apparatus, our sense organs, but not all of them get into consciousness. It is what you are interested in that gets into consciousness. Consciousness selects; it floats upon the series of demands for attention. (83f; Fs)
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11/4 In the flow of consciousness there is not only the subjective side, the concern, what concerns me, but also its correlative, the world - not the world but one's world. There is the world of teachers,
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13/4 The distinction I have just drawn is Husserl's distinction between Abschattung and Horizont. Abschattung is, as it were, the shadow; 'horizon' will do for Horizont. But now we want to think of a horizon of the second degree. We have spoken of a horizon of Brockman Hall, or of any object that you cannot see the whole of in a single look. But what is one's world? It is a horizon of horizons. It is the totality of objects like Brockman Hall, the organized whole of intelligibly varying objects in which I happen to have any interest, for which I have any concern. And that totality is a totality that we construct out of our experience, where the construction is governed by our concern. Just as one does not see the horizon of Brockman Hall, so one never sees one's world. What is his world? Well, you don't see it. It is a construction of constructions. What you see is the profile. The horizon is an envelope containing all possible profiles, and also the knowledge of how many profiles you need in order to recognize the object. (This is an analytic account, of course, a simpler statement of the things that go on.) One's world is a horizon of horizons, a horizon of the second degree, the totality of objects for which one has any concern. Again, one can say that my world is the part of the universe determined by the horizon of my concern. (84f; Fs) (notabene)
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14/4 Thus we have four terms, four moments in concrete existence subject, concern, horizon, world. The subject's concern determines his horizon, and his horizon selects his world. With that notion of subject-concern-horizon-world, one can move from the child's world to the world of the man. These notions thus give us something that we can deal with when we speak of the developing subject. (85; Fs)