Margaret M. McKee, IDSVA

Bureau/Division/Agency

Library

Download

Download Full Text (3.6 MB)

Document Type

Text

Broad Creation Date

2025

Language

English

Location

Portland

Abstract

Relational attentiveness is necessary to reconsider being-in-the-world, especially our interactions with more-than-human subjectivities. As a form of being-with, relational attentiveness allows for greater attunement and engagement. This dissertation proposes philosophically to redefine and consolidate “attentiveness,” a term historically recognized for its importance but only referenced tangentially in contemporary philosophy and never accorded the status or rigor of a philosophical concept. Reframing Heidegger’s imperative question: What is called thinking? as What is called thinking-with? in concert with the work of vibrant materialist Jane Bennett, highlights attentiveness with the more-than-human. Although Bennett discusses the vibrancy of objects and affords the potential for an extension to other nonhuman subjectivities, she does not explicitly pursue this inquiry. Exploring a relationship with more- than-human and thus redefined subjectivities through relational attentiveness, intimacy, and sharing enables the subject to perceive and engage within interludes of vibrant space.

I define relational attentiveness as attention to meaning rather than purpose, which necessitates a departure from Cartesian dualism; I define a new concept of subjectivity that departs from and extends the metaphysics of the subject. I argue that relational attentiveness is necessary to shift notions of subjectivity by clarifying previously unregarded subjects within the vibrancy of spatial-temporal interludes. I develop a polyphonic methodology and use 7 intertextual analysis, to consider the singularity of the voices present, both in their autonomous merit and in the greater harmony of relational attentiveness. In the mainstay of my methodological structure. I, too, become a voice in the polyphony and model an ethic of polyphonic engagement. In each chapter, I present members of the polyphony and their distinct contributions, both human and more-than-human. Engaging with the singularity of each voice develops the woven structure of my methodology, underscoring the dire need for increased relationality to engage with our worlds through curiosity rather than adherence to narratives of progress, technology, and the Metaphysical limits of speech and language.

Disciplines

Metaphysics | Other Philosophy | Philosophy

Publisher

Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts

City

Portland ME

RELATIONAL ATTENTIVENESS: A FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING INTIMACY WITHIN ONTOLOGICAL ENCOUNTERS



Share

COinS
 

Rights Statement

Rights Statement

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).