MCSI Lecture Series Presents Carolyn Dicey Jennings

Abstract: As I have argued elsewhere, attention is the source of our power. Before every choice and action, you first organize your world through attention—your priorities push some things closer to the center, other things to the sidelines. The center then shapes your thoughts, choices, and behaviors. In my view, without this ability we would not have agency or autonomy—we wouldn't be selves. But we are more than selves. Our priorities and projects are bound up with others, whose interests shift our own. Our evolutionary history adds more pushing and pulling to this mix, sometimes against our values. All of these influences are woven into a single landscape, controlling our thoughts and actions. Recent technologies change this landscape by favoring what is predictable—our biological propensities and social instincts—and diminishing our role as individuals. This talk will explore whether they also enhance our abilities as social groups.

Bio: Professor Jennings is a philosopher of mind and cognitive science who focuses on attention. She was educated at University of St Andrews and Boston University and has been working at University of California, Merced since 2013. Her first book, The Attending Mind, was published with Cambridge University Press in 2020.

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