What is the attention particular to a caring disposition? Some hypotheses drawn from a contextual and conceptual inquiry

Abstract

If not all care activities seem to be inhabited in the same way, what would be the disposition that would sustain their fully living manifestations? Since accompanying my grandmother, these questions have shifted the focus of this investigation to some extraordinary experiences initiated by artists in the context of institutions for the dependent elderly. These suspended moments, capable of rekindling emotional and relational life where it seemed lost, invite a reflection on the intense and powerful attention deployed by these performers. A detour into aesthetic and neuro-cognitive approaches to attention gives rise to a number of hypotheses on the nature of a caring disposition.

Keywords: attention, care, ethics, solicitude.