On Noticing

Before anything can be understood, something must first become noticeable. Something changes. A familiar room feels different. A silence acquires weight. A word arrives before we know what it means. On Noticing stays close to that interval: the moment in which something moves from the background of experience and begins to matter. Written from the orientation of philosophical anthropology, the book explores how human beings become capable of noticing. Perception is never entirely private. It is shaped by memory, language, relationship, social formation, atmosphere and the histories through which some differences become visible while others remain in shadow. Across ten recursive chapters, the inquiry moves from awareness before recognition towards difference, formation, naming, participation, atmosphere, signals, judgement and continuance. Philosophy, sociology, social psychology, phenomenology and cybernetics remain quietly present, while the prose speaks principally from lived experience and sustained reflection. There are no exercises and no promised method for becoming more observant. The invitation is simpler and more demanding: to remain with the moment in which familiarity is interrupted and another possibility begins to appear. Spaciously written and accompanied by monochrome images, On Noticing is for readers drawn to the philosophy of everyday life, perception, social formation, language, relationship and human responsibility.