P. Sven Arvidson

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.

Context and Margin

The Sphere of Attention

Robbie Davis-Floyd

Science could never have proceeded without the creativity of intuition--yet intuition is poorly understood and poorly studied. In Intuition: The Inside Story, scholars explore the nature of intuition and its practical place in the social and behavioral sciences and the arts. These contributors present the latest theoretical developments and research and provide every day examples of intuition from the lab and field. They discuss the nature and experience of intuition from the perspectives of anthropology, philosophy, physics, engineering, psychology, medicine and midwifery. Contributors include: Marcie Boucouvalas, Guy Burneko, Brenda J. Dunne, Jeremy Hayward, Charles Laughlin, Evelyn Monsay, Anne Pineault, Luci Roncalli and Joe Sheridan.

P. Sven Arvidson

Books

Your next favorite book is out there