Ruth Chang

Ruth Chang (Oxford) presents to the GoodAttention group.

Ruth Chang looking up and thinking.

Here is Ruth Chang wondering about attention. Photo: Maurice Weiss


Title: Some thoughts about a philosophical account of attention


Abstract: How is it that we attend to one thing rather than another? Are we justified in attending to that thing rather than the other? I sketch a philosophical account of how it is that we pay attention to this rather than that and why we are warranted in doing so. My test case is ‘choice situations’: how is it that we attend to one choice situation, with particular options in a particular set of circumstances, rather than many others that are open and available to us? And how can we be justified in attending to and being in that choice situation as opposed to any other? I suggest an answer both questions.

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About the speaker: Ruth Chang is Chair and Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow at University College, Oxford. She works on the nature of normativity, the structure of values and reasons, practical reason, agency, rationality, population ethics, love, commitment, decision-making, and the self. For more see her personal website.

Published Oct. 31, 2023 4:30 PM - Last modified Nov. 9, 2023 9:21 AM