Abstract

In Ortega, attention was always more than a cognitive phenomenon. For its projective character, for its linkage to the interests of the subject, it represented the copulative element that allowed the coexistence between “myself” and its circumstance; the trapdoor through which someone could open to the world and imbued it, determining which aspects of reality were apprehended and which were not. Attention, for Ortega, was the tool by which we change from impression to concept and, therefore, it was essential to any knowledge. When he pretended a change in the way of understanding and transforming his own culture, attention was raised as the most highly valued tool.