3
Gestalt
Mental Life Gets Organized
Everything you see, hear and think comes to you in structured wholes: When
you read, you’re seeing a whole page even when you focus on one word or sentence. When someone speaks, you hear whole words and phrases, not individual bursts of sound. When you listen to music, you hear an ongoing melody,
not just the note that is currently being played. Ongoing events enter your
awareness as Gestalts, for the Gestalt is the natural unit of mental life. If you
try to concentrate on a dot on this page, you will notice that you cannot help
but see the context at the same time. Vision would be meaningless, and have
no biological function, if people and animals saw anything less than integral
scenes. 1
The obvious reason for this is that life plays out in whole events, and the
objects with which every animal interacts are complete things. A deer must
instantly recognize the form of a cougar (and vice-versa), a squirrel must see
the separate branches on a tree, a honeybee must know different kinds of
flowers each having a distinctive design. Birds must tell the difference between
nourishing and poisonous butterflies by subtle differences in wing design and
markings. The habitat of every living thing is multiple and complex, and
survival depends on the power to learn and recognize its intricacies. Even
single-celled animals respond differentially to complex configurations. The
more we learn about animal life, the more clearly we see that all perception
and all action are designed for survival in a multiform and dynamic world of
whole objects and complete events. In such a world, living organisms must be
able to perceive undivided patterns and whole configurations.
© The Author(s) 2021
C. Pinter, Mind and the Cosmic Order,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50083-2_3
29
Gestalt
Mental Life Gets Organized
Everything you see, hear and think comes to you in structured wholes: When
you read, you’re seeing a whole page even when you focus on one word or sentence. When someone speaks, you hear whole words and phrases, not individual bursts of sound. When you listen to music, you hear an ongoing melody,
not just the note that is currently being played. Ongoing events enter your
awareness as Gestalts, for the Gestalt is the natural unit of mental life. If you
try to concentrate on a dot on this page, you will notice that you cannot help
but see the context at the same time. Vision would be meaningless, and have
no biological function, if people and animals saw anything less than integral
scenes. 1
The obvious reason for this is that life plays out in whole events, and the
objects with which every animal interacts are complete things. A deer must
instantly recognize the form of a cougar (and vice-versa), a squirrel must see
the separate branches on a tree, a honeybee must know different kinds of
flowers each having a distinctive design. Birds must tell the difference between
nourishing and poisonous butterflies by subtle differences in wing design and
markings. The habitat of every living thing is multiple and complex, and
survival depends on the power to learn and recognize its intricacies. Even
single-celled animals respond differentially to complex configurations. The
more we learn about animal life, the more clearly we see that all perception
and all action are designed for survival in a multiform and dynamic world of
whole objects and complete events. In such a world, living organisms must be
able to perceive undivided patterns and whole configurations.
© The Author(s) 2021
C. Pinter, Mind and the Cosmic Order,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50083-2_3
29