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Activity Funded

Institute for Philosophical Studies

Instituto de Estudos Filosóficos

Reference
UID/00010/2025
Project Start Date
2025-01-01
Project End Date
2029-12-31
Principal Investigator
Scientific Area
Humanities
Funding Program
Avaliação UID 2023/2024

Abstract

In recent years, the research undertaken by the Institute for Philosophical Studies (IEF) has focused mainly on the notion of care, its different philosophical incarnations (epiméleia, cura, Sorge, solicitude, etc.) and the extent to which they can help elucidate and transform our relationship with the surrounding world. In the future, we aim to continue exploring this topic, but through a wider and more fundamental research lens. Our primary concern will no longer be the concept of care as such, but that of attention (attentiveness, Aufmerksamkeit, etc.), its history and its contemporary relevance. In today’s world, the growing primacy of communication over apperception conditions the nature, quality and scope of human relations. The pressure to communicate is ubiquitous, leaving no time for the establishment and consolidation of lasting bonds and relationships. As a result, attentiveness is increasingly replaced by mere reactivity. A philosophy of attention aims to counter this trend by challenging the dominance of reactivity and highlighting the necessary articulation of sensibility and reflexivity with the concrete temporality of human life. The main goal of this approach is to demonstrate that the apprehension and interpretation of reality imply the prevalence of a stable cognitive background as the basis for the definition and pursual of individual and collective projects. Based on this diagnosis, IEF’s members will develop their future research according to two general research lines: 1) The exploration of the historical-philosophical concept of attention, through the identification and questioning of the origins, evolution and aims of a philosophy of attention. This effort will draw on critical, phenomenological, hermeneutical and analytical perspectives, emphasizing past and present lines of research and investigating the anthropological foundations of the concept of attention, as well as its cognitive, affective, and volitional dimensions. 2) The recognition of attention as a key concept for understanding emerging issues in contemporary society. A special emphasis will be placed, in this context, on the ethical, political, economic, and aestheticdimensions of attention. These two research lines will enable an inter- and multidisciplinary dialogue with other scientific areas that are also concerned with the topic of attention. This dialogue will include the establishment of international partnerships with research units specialized in attention studies and the organization of local seminars and training activities open to the institute’s researchers and to a wider audience. Moreover, apart from the scientific, editorial, training and outreach initiatives detailed below (see §11.1), four major international colloquia will also be held, focusing on different aspects of philosophy of attention. They will provide an important opportunity to debate and disseminate the project’s results.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade de Coimbra Instituto de Estudos Filosóficos (UCIEF)
  • Universidade de Coimbra (UC)

Funding 243.383,55 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

243.383,55 €