The Phenomenology of Problem Solving.

The author outlines a provisional phenomenology of problem solving. He begins by reviewing the history of problem-solving psychology, focusing on the Gestalt approach, which emphasizes the influence of prior knowledge and the occurrence of sudden insights. He then describes problem solving as a proc...

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Published in:Grazer Philosophische Studien Vol. 94; no. 3; pp. 391 - 410
Main Author: Yoshimi, Jeffrey
Format: Article
Published: Brill Academic Publishers 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: The Phenomenology of Problem Solving.
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        au: Yoshimi, Jeffrey
        affil: University of California, Merced
      su:
        Phenomenology
        Problem solving
        Insight
        Gestalt psychology
        Husserl, Edmund, 1859-1938
        James, William, 1842-1910
        Gurwitsch, Aron
        Selz, Otto
        Psychology
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        subj:
          Phenomenology
          Problem solving
          Insight
          Gestalt psychology
          Husserl, Edmund, 1859-1938
          James, William, 1842-1910
          Gurwitsch, Aron
          Selz, Otto
          Psychology
      keyword:
        Aron Gurwitsch
        Edmund Husserl
        insight
        Max Wertheimer
        Otto Selz
        phenomenology
        problem solving
        William James
      ab: The author outlines a provisional phenomenology of problem solving. He begins by reviewing the history of problem-solving psychology, focusing on the Gestalt approach, which emphasizes the influence of prior knowledge and the occurrence of sudden insights. He then describes problem solving as a process unfolding in a field of consciousness against a background of unconscious knowledge, which encodes action patterns, schemata, and affordances. A global feeling of wrongness or tension is resolved by a series of field transitions, which are guided by peripheral experiences of coherence or "rightness." The author treats the distinction between reproductive thought (in which we rely on existing strategies to solve a problem) and productive thought (in which we struggle to identify new strategies) as a difference in field structure. With reproductive thoughts and actions we perform operations to solve a problem in a semi-automatic sequence. In productive thought, by contrast, a kind of parallel search occurs. This may explain the otherwise obscure phenomenology of struggling to break an impasse.
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