Simone Weil’s Radical Conception of Attention
Attention is all we have. According to philosopher Simone Weil, it is sacred — the rarest form of generosity:
“Attention alone, that attention which is so full that the ‘I’ disappears, is required of me. I have to deprive all that I call ‘I’ of the light of my attention and turn it onto that which cannot be conceived.”
Alex Dobrenko` • switching to a "dumb" phone made me feel pretty dang smart
Milner, after keeping a diary and trying to pinpoint what experiences truly make her feel alive, realizes that she seems to pay two kinds of attention: “narrow attention” and “wide attention.” She describes them in a chapter called “Two Ways of Looking”:
(1) Narrow attention. – This first way of perceiving seemed to be the automatic one, the kind of... See more
(1) Narrow attention. – This first way of perceiving seemed to be the automatic one, the kind of... See more
Subtle shifts in language can sometimes have surprising consequences. The language of attention seems particularly loaded with economic and value-oriented metaphors, such as when we speak of paying attention or imagine our attention as a scarce resource we must either waste or horde. However, to my ears, the related language of attending to the wor... See more
theconvivialsociety.substack.com • Attending to the World
Attentiveness entails the difficult task of waiting, not for the world to take note of us, but for us to take note of the world.
Robert Zaretsky • The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas
Attention is the most basic form of love. By paying attention we let ourselves be touched by life, and our hearts naturally become more open and engaged.