冥觀人文練習 · Meditative Humanities Practice
自願與非自願注意力
Voluntary and Involuntary Attention

韓炳哲指出,我們生活在兩種注意力的張力之中:
非自願注意力——被通知與訊息流捕獲的反應式存在
自願注意力——主動停留的能力,是藝術、哲學、照顧他人的根基

Byung-Chul Han describes a tension between two forms of attention:
involuntary attention — a reactive existence captured by notifications and streams
voluntary attention — the capacity to dwell, which grounds art, philosophy, and care

「自願注意力——產生藝術、哲學、科學與照顧他人的能力——正被侵蝕,並被非自願注意力取代;後者以分心的方式,對推文、Snapchat、BeReal、WhatsApp 與簡訊的河流作出反應。」

"Voluntary attention – that which produces art, philosophy, science, and care for others – is eroded and replaced by involuntary attention, which reacts in a distracted manner to the river of tweets, snapchats, BeReals, WhatsApps, and text messages." Byung-Chul Han, Non-things (2022) · 韓炳哲《非物》
Phase I · 非自願注意力 · Involuntary Attention — · 0 msgs · 0 則

你剛才讀到了什麼?
試著寫下三件你記得的事。

What did you just read? Try to name three things you remember.

難以記起嗎?這不是記憶力的問題。
非自願注意力捕獲感官,卻不讓任何東西真正落地。

Involuntary attention captures our senses but lets nothing truly land.
概念轉換 · Conceptual Bridge
注意力的危機
A Crisis of Attention
拉丁語 · Latin: ad tendere
向外伸展 · to stretch toward
向自身以外伸展、觸及他者
to reach beyond oneself
法語 · French: attendre
等待 · to wait, to tarry
駐留、保持準備的姿態
to hold oneself in readiness
尼采 · Nietzsche
「學習看見」
Learn to see
抵制立即反應,讓事物向自己接近,卻不立刻動手。

"Resist reaction, let impressions come without immediately responding to them."
西蒙娜·薇依 · Simone Weil
「我」的消失
Sacred attention
真正的注意力使自我讓位,讓他者的現實完整呈現。

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."
韓炳哲 / 赫伯特·賽門 · Han / Herbert Simon
注意力的貧乏
Poverty of attention
資訊豐盛的代價是注意力的匱乏。超級注意力使我們無法深度凝視。

"A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."
赫伯特·賽門 · Herbert Simon, 1971
梵谷《一雙鞋》· Van Gogh, A Pair of Shoes (Google Art Project)
梵谷 · Van Gogh, A Pair of Shoes, c. 1886–1887
維基共享 · Wikimedia Commons
例示 · Example — 開放式凝視 / Open-ended looking
乍看之下:「這是一幅舊鞋的畫。」我們辨認物件,然後移開目光。
At first glance: "This is a painting of old shoes." We identify the object and move on.

但若我們停留——不急於提取意義——鞋子開始改變。我們注意到它們看起來多麼沉重,皮革多麼磨損,深色內裡幾乎像一個小洞穴。
But if we stay — without trying to extract a quick meaning — the shoes begin to change. We notice how heavy they look, how worn the leather is, how the dark interior seems almost like a small cave.

我們開始感受到:勞動、貧困、旅途、疲憊——某個走了很長路的人匿名的一生。
We begin to sense: labor, poverty, travel, exhaustion — the anonymous life of someone who has walked a long distance.
當我們轉身離去,可能會以不同方式看待門邊的鞋、工人的靴、自己磨損的運動鞋。它們不再只是中性的物件——它們承載著移動、習慣與生命的痕跡。
When we turn away, we may look differently at actual shoes by a door, a worker's boots, our own worn sneakers. They no longer appear as neutral things — they carry traces of movement, habit, and life.

藝術訓練注意力,不是給我們資訊,
而是改變現實可以如何呈現。

Art trains attention not by giving us information, but by changing how reality can appear.
凝視練習 · Close Attention Exercise
Van Gogh 凝視這雙鞋,直到看見了一個人的一生。
Van Gogh gazed at these shoes until he saw a whole life.
現在,選擇你面前的一件事物,凝視它 90 秒。
Choose something in front of you. Look at it for 90 seconds.
1.選一件你此刻能看到的事物 — 一個物件、一雙手、一塊牆。
Pick something you can see right now — an object, a pair of hands, a patch of wall.
2.按下「開始」,靜靜凝視,不要評判,不要命名,只是停留。
Press Start. Gaze quietly — no judging, no naming, just dwell.
3.計時結束後,在下方寫下你注意到的一件事。
When the timer ends, write down one thing you noticed.
1:30
計時結束。你看見了什麼? · What did you notice?
Phase II · 自願注意力 · Voluntary Attention 0:00

這裡只有一件事。
There is only one thing here.

瑪麗娜·阿布拉莫維奇《藝術家在場》· Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present, MoMA 2010 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

西蒙娜·薇依 · 艾瑞絲·梅鐸 · Simone Weil · Iris Murdoch

「是愛的能力——也就是看見的能力——
使靈魂從幻象中解放。」

"It is the capacity to love, that is, to see,
that the liberation of the soul from fantasy occurs."
Iris Murdoch, Existentialists and Mystics, p.354 · 艾瑞絲·梅鐸《存在主義者與神祕主義者》

注意力是「朝向個別現實的公正而充滿愛的凝視」
a just and loving gaze directed upon an individual reality

凝視她的眼睛 · Gaze into her eyes
瑪麗娜·阿布拉莫維奇《藝術家在場》· Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present, MoMA 2010

Phase III · 反思與比較 · Reflection
比較兩種注意力
Comparing Two Forms of Attention
非自願注意力 · Involuntary
  • 被訊息流捕獲 · Captured by streams
  • 無法選擇停留 · Cannot choose to dwell
  • 反應式、碎片化 · Reactive, fragmented
  • 感官消耗,無沉澱 · Sensory overload, no settling
  • 「資料拜物主義」 · "Data fetishism"
自願注意力 · Voluntary
  • 主動選擇停留 · Actively choosing to dwell
  • 能與一件事共處 · Able to stay with one thing
  • 深度、緩慢、沉澱 · Deep, slow, settling
  • 產生藝術、哲學、照顧 · Produces art, philosophy, care
  • 「從奔跑中解放」 · "Liberation from the rush"

1. 在「訊息流」階段,你的身心有什麼感受?

During "the stream," what did you feel in body and mind?

2. 在「單一事物」階段,發生了什麼不同?是什麼讓停留成為可能——或變得困難?

During "the object," what was different? What made staying possible — or difficult?

3. 「停留的能力」在你自己的生命中意味著什麼?

Han says voluntary attention grounds art, philosophy, and care. What does "the capacity to dwell" mean in your own life?

「是愛的能力——也就是看見的能力——使靈魂從幻象中解放。」
"It is the capacity to love, that is, to see, that the liberation of the soul from fantasy occurs." Iris Murdoch, Existentialists and Mystics, p.354 · 艾瑞絲·梅鐸《存在主義者與神祕主義者》
borrowing Simone Weil's concept of attention · 借自西蒙娜·薇依對注意力的概念
a just and loving gaze directed upon an individual reality · 朝向個別現實的公正而充滿愛的凝視
「使人成為資料拜物主義者的,不是資訊本身,而是注意力的結構——一種再也無法選擇停留的注意力。」
"What makes us data fetishists is not information itself, but the structure of attention — an attention that can no longer choose to dwell." Byung-Chul Han, Non-things (2022) · 韓炳哲《非物》(2022)