ABSTRACT
Now by ethics we simply mean any organized or systemic set (“ sys temic” meaning that the various parts are affected by each other, and by the whole) of values-where “ value” is understood to mean an established preference for particular behaviors, or sets of behaviors, under some given range of circumstances, without regard for immediate outcome of the behav ior or considerations of personal satisfaction or pleasure, other than the resolution or satisfaction of that ethical gestalt itself. Such a pattern, or predisposing tendency, which is the structured residue of past figure or past organizations of experience, is itself a ground condition or ground structure, which enters into the shaping and selection of new figure in an ongoing and interactive way. Thus in Gestalt theory, experience (or “ reality,” in Goodman’s term) is always a new creative engagement, involving and integ rating current felt urgencies, current perceived environmental conditions (in ternal and external), and the organized accumulation of past experience, which is in (or which is) the structured personal ground. The quality of this integration, this organization of figure and ground, is the quality of the experience, in both the momentary and ongoing sense. In the words of Sonia March Nevis (1988), a weak or chaotic organization leads to (or is) a chaotic experience, and an absence or low level of satisfaction: This is the particular insight and the crux of the Gestalt model itself.
