Abstract

Setting out from an engagement with François Jullien’s philosophical perspective, the paper proposes a reassessment of the relationship between the two notions of “floating attentionµ and metis. These are seen to reflect two possible functional articulations of an idea of “attentionµ – conceived of as the interest in understanding things – that are conceptually distinct yet virtually related on the operative level. In this perspective, the article shows how, in both cases, what is at stake is the human being’s ability to take up the challenge of sense-perception, by making his encounter with the sensible an occasion for the liberation of the possible.