ABSTRACT
This chapter examines certain specific ways of practising attention. It describes perspectives of attention inspired by literature about attention from the fields of both psychology and dialogue philosophy. The chapter discusses enhancing attention from a variety of perspectives: enhancing attention to the implicit elements of the situation; immersing oneself into the complexity of the situation; and enhancing attention to oneself and the other. Attention is directed at the individual’s sensory experiences in the concrete life world that forms the topic of reflection and attention. Sensory experiences are initially perceived as a felt sense, which stems from the immediate and felt meaning the person develops in a given situation, event or relationship with another person. The situationally specific gaze enables the dialogue partner’s immersion into his or her specific involvement in the context, which also forms the basis for a shared reflective focus between the dialogue participants. The situation-specific perspective helps establish a context that both dialogue participants can refer to.
