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A Phenomenology of Creative Attention

Merleau-Ponty and Philosophy of Mind


Back to issue: Phänomenologische Forschungen 2018-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.28937/1000108204
EUR 16.90


This paper develops the concept of ‘creative attention’. Against classical theories that understand attention as a spotlight that brings objects into focus, I will argue that attention is a complex phenomenon structured in different layers. The most basic layer is perceptual, passive and pre-predicative: at this level, attention is creative – and this is the central claim of this paper – because it institutes meanings and rules for our behaviour