The modes of attention

Abstract

In this text, it is claimed that a phenomenological approach to attention could provide important distinctions concerning different levels of consciousness. After criticizing some classical ideas about attention, the phenomenological ideas are introduced pointing how relevant they are for conceiving key aspects of attention that are usually overlooked in other theories. By revisiting seminal ideas from Husserl, Gurvistch, Sartre and Merlau-Ponty, the relationship between the workings of attention and the modes of consciousness explored by phenomenology is underscored. From this point of view, two basic modes of attention are distinguished: a passive form which is involved in the forms of synthesis responsible for the structure of the immediate contents of experience, and an active mode, characterized by the sense of agency which allows the subject to make distinctions, individuate and highlight different aspects from the structure of experience. There is a dynamic relation between these two forms of attention and how they can be identified with two modes of consciousness: while the passive form corresponds to pre-reflective consciousness, the active form is equivalent to the more reflective ways of directing the attention. The pre-reflective mode of consciousness characterizes the continuous forms of being related with the world without exerting meta-cognitive monitoring over our experiences. The active mode attention can only operate on the basis of pre-reflective consciousness.