CFP: Synthese Topical Collection: Collective Attention

Attention is usually thought of as prioritization in the individual mind—for example, selecting an object to act on or centring something in one’s consciousness. But we also often talk about what collectives—for example, research groups, institutions, or entire societies—attend to, or neglect. One aim of this Topical Collection is to make better sense of what collective attention (the attention of a collective subject) is and how it relates to individual attention and to joint attention (individuals attending together). This is not just an interesting question in itself; taking it up in more detail than has been done so far is also necessary in order to address the normative issues concerning collective attention—which is another aim of the Topical Collection. The collection thus explores the nature and the norms of collective attention, both in general and in application to specific contexts.

Appropriate Topics for Submission include, among others:

- What is collective attention? In what sense(s) can collectives—for example, research groups, institutions, or entire societies—be attending subjects?

- How are different accounts of individual attention—e.g., as structuring consciousness into foreground and background (Sebastian Watzl) or as selection for action (Wayne Wu)—applicable to collective attention?

- How is collective attention different from joint attention? Or is collective attention just (a form of) joint attention?

- How are the different existing approaches to collective mental phenomena (e.g., collective belief, intention, or emotion) applicable to collective attention?

- How is collective attention relevant, for example, in social epistemology, metaphilosophy, or philosophy of science?

- Are there norms or virtues of collective attention and how do these relate to the norms or virtues of individual attention?

- How can collective attention be problematic?

- How can collective attention be engineered—controlled and improved?

For further information, please contact the guest editors:

Eve Kitsik ([email protected]; [email protected])

Katharine Browne ([email protected])

Sebastian Watzl ([email protected])

Submissions via: https://www.editorialmanager.com/synt/default.aspx (select the topical collection "Collective Attention" from the drop-down menu).