This article questions the notion of “detail” in contemporary reading theories. Making a historical and critical detour, I first try to understand, with the help of a few major figures in this domain, what constitutes the “epistemology of details”. Then, elaborating on Jean-Claude Milner’s work, I try to analyse the “ethics of details” which relates to “political discernement”, a fundamental element of what Milner calls the “culture of sentences”. Finally I suggest a development on the “attention to details”, as an answer to an article by Michel Charles, within the particular epistemological context of reading theories.