Directed attention does not weaken world-consciousness but relegates the world to ground

Evidence

Let us note first that no matter how absorbed I am in my reading, I do not for all that cease making the world come into being. Better yet, my reading is an act which implies in its very nature the existence of the world as a necessary ground. This certainly does not mean that I have a weaker consciousness of the world but that I am conscious of it as a ground. … To be conscious is always to be conscious of the world, and the world and body are always present to my consciousness although in different ways. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 881

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that figure-ground consciousness means the world persists as ground, not that attention subtracts world-awareness.
• XREF: Ground vs. figure distinction directly prefigures Beauvoir’s and Merleau-Ponty’s treatments of perceptual consciousness and situatedness. — connects to: Grounding perception in figure-on-ground configuration requires original nihilation by attention — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 192; Escaping the attention economy differs from escaping the world entirely — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 36; Sustained attention reveals that the nonhuman world precedes and exceeds human-built reality — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 436 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Escaping the attention economy differs from escaping the world entirely #expands (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 36
• Sustained attention reveals that the nonhuman world precedes and exceeds human-built reality #expands (0.75) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 436