Are fish aware of the water? Do they know—or can they even imagine—that it is possible to live one’s life without being immersed in water? In a famous speech delivered in 2005 to the graduating class of Kenyon College, the American novelist David Foster Wallace used this unsettling example to explore the concept of awareness, the many things humans fail to notice, and how to improve our care for the world and for others. In his talk, after reconstructing Wallace’s argument, Paolo Costa will focus on how human attention works and its connection to kindness. The goal is to come to a new understanding of the meaning of the phrase: “This is water.”