These thoughts were again inspired by Silvia Panizza's book The Ethics of Attention.
She writes, "Attention is involved not only in an act of perception, but also in an act
of creation." And she explains the claim with reference to a quotation from Simone Weil:
Love for our neighbour, being made of creative attention, is analogous to genius.
Creative attention means really giving our attention to what does not exist. Humanity does not exist in the anonymous flesh lying inert by the roadside. The Samaritan who stops and looks gives his attention all the same to this absent humanity, and the actions which follow prove that it is a question of real attention.
‘Faith’, says Saint Paul, ‘is the evidence of things not seen’. In this moment of attention faith is present as much as love. In the same way a man who is entirely at the disposal of others does not exist. A slave does not exist either in the eyes of his master or or in his own…
Love sees what is invisible.
So, the idea is that by attending deeply and with love, one draws into being the personhood and reality of the other, who is as nothing if no-one "sees" them.
I sort of turned this around in the presentation I gave, saying that Bobbit, when he attended to me, created me. And I think this is right: he created me-qua-intentional-agential-being - AKA person - in his life-world.
Most of the time, other animals seek to decreate us: by fleeing, hiding, ignoring. They do not want us humans in their reality, or if they want us there it is instrumentally. Animals will notice us if they associate us with food or opportunity.
That's how the squirrels see me. They pay attention to when I go into the garden as they know there will be peanuts. On the whole though, they do not regard me as fellow kin.
This is not dissimilar to how we humans regard others. It is a limited form of creation. A creation without depth, without real subjectivity. But to see us as a fellow-being, as kin, is special.
Considering this more, maybe Mrs S, in using me as a human shield, especially in looking at me, seeming to seek my assistance, was regarding me in some sense as a fellow-being.
Another idea I wanted to consider is this: "My suggestion is that attention allows us to see some affordances that we otherwise would not."
Affordances are... examples is easier: the sittable-on-ness of a chair; the smellable-ness of a rose; the lovableness of a baby; the climbable-ness of a tree.
If you pay attention to a cat, you see the claw-sharpen-upon-ness of a new sofa; the chaseable-ness of a laser beam; the eatable-ness of a spider;the jump-in-able-ness of a cardboard box.
This, I think, is so important: this is how we begin to understand what matters to others and how it is possible to make their lives better.
Finally, I quote here the conclusion to the book, which I believe to be excellent.
The whole enterprise of seeking criteria for moral value, in fact, seems
almost corrupt, if it aims to establish a hierarchy of who matters more
and who less, who matters and who does not. It is a telling sign of the
refusal to pay attention that much debate on animal ethics has, mostly at
its inception as academic discipline but even now, revolved around just
this: how do we know who has value, and among those who have value,
who has more? We do not save lives because they matter enough, or more
than others. We save them because they need saving, and because we can.
The love of our neighbour in all its fullness simply means being able
to say to him: ‘What are you going through?’ It is a recognition that
the sufferer exists, not only as a unit in a collection, or a specimen
from the social category labelled ‘unfortunate’, but as a man, exactly
like us, who was one day stamped with a special mark by affliction.
For this reason it is enough, but it is indispensable, to know how to
look at him in a certain way.
This way of looking is first of all attentive. The soul empties itself
of all its own contents in order to receive into itself the being it is
looking at, just as he is, in all his truth.
Only he who is capable of attention can do this.
(Simone Weil - RSS 115)
To look attentively ‘is enough, but it is indispensable’.
Affordances "...how we begin to understand what matters to others and how it is possible to make their lives better."
"... it is enough, but it is indispensable, to know how to
look at him in a certain way."
Thanks for this post Crone. It helps me to think about the importance of attention for all, and more specifically, why it's important for me to learn how and to practice it in my daily life. xx