Virtuous Collective Attention.

IF 1.3 2区 哲学 0 PHILOSOPHY
Isabel Kaeslin
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

How can a collective pay attention virtuously? Imagine a group of scientists. It matters what topics they pay attention to, that is, which topics they draw to the foreground and take to be relevant, and which they leave in the background. It also matters which aspects of an investigated phenomenon they foreground, and which aspects they leave unnoticed in the background. If we want to understand not only how individuals pay attention of this kind virtuously, but also collectives, we first need a framework to understand virtuous collective agency. A result of this article will be that virtuous collective action depends on the collective being institutionalized. At the same time, we have to think of the constituents of the collective in terms of practical identities (as opposed to individuals). This is what enables us to understand how a collective can acquire the stability required for virtue, and how we don't end up with a summative account of group virtue, respectively. It will be argued that collectives only have the required stability in their actions when their commitments are habitualized in the form of institutionalized procedures. An Aristotelian understanding of virtue distinguishes between commitment, inclination, and action. Only when a subject's inclination is fully lined up with her commitment, do we arrive at the required stability (of character) for virtuous action. In the case of individuals, to build up an appropriate inclination consists in an inscribing of the commitment into the feelings and body of the subject. If a commitment is fully 'embodied' in this sense, it has formed the individual's inclination accordingly. How can one make sense of this in the case of collective subjects? This article tries to show that for collectives, the embodiment of commitment (the forming of the fitting inclinations) consists in creating policies, procedures, and rules that stabilize the acting according to the commitment, irrespective of the motivation of each individual involved in the collective. Hence, embodiment of commitment, in the case of collectives, is institutionalization. The article then explores what this requirement of institutionalization means for collective attention. The illustration will draw on a distinction between focused and open-minded attention. It will be shown that for either case - focused and open-minded - in order for a collective to pay attention virtuously, it needs to have its commitments institutionalized.

良性集体关注。
一个集体如何才能良性关注?想象一下一群科学家。他们关注哪些话题,也就是他们把哪些话题放在前面并认为是相关的,哪些话题放在后面,这很重要。同样重要的是,他们把所研究现象的哪些方面放在首位,而把哪些方面放在幕后不加注意。如果我们不仅要了解个人如何良性地关注这种现象,还要了解集体,那么我们首先需要一个框架来了解良性的集体机构。本文的一个结果是,良性集体行动取决于集体的制度化。同时,我们必须从实际身份(而不是个人)的角度来考虑集体的组成人员。这使我们能够理解一个集体如何获得美德所需的稳定性,以及我们如何最终不会对群体美德做出总结性的描述。我们将论证,只有当集体的承诺以制度化程序的形式习惯化时,集体的行动才具有所需的稳定性。亚里士多德对美德的理解区分了承诺、倾向和行动。只有当一个主体的倾向与其承诺完全一致时,我们才能获得美德行动所需的(性格)稳定性。就个人而言,要建立适当的倾向,就必须将承诺融入主体的情感和身体。如果一个承诺在这个意义上被充分 "体现",它就相应地形成了个人的倾向。如何在集体主体的情况下理解这一点呢?本文试图说明,对于集体而言,承诺的体现(形成相适应的倾向)包括制定政策、程序和规则,以稳定按照承诺行事,而不论集体中每个人的动机如何。因此,在集体中,承诺的体现就是制度化。文章接着探讨了制度化这一要求对集体关注的意义。文章将对专注型和开放型注意力进行区分。文章将说明,无论是集中注意力还是开放注意力,为了使集体能够良性地关注,都需要将其承诺制度化。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.10
自引率
7.10%
发文量
47
期刊介绍: Topoi''s main assumption is that philosophy is a lively, provocative, delightful activity, which constantly challenges our received views, relentlessly questions our inherited habits, painstakingly elaborates on how things could be different, in other stories, in counterfactual situations, in alternative possible worlds. Whatever its ideology, whether with the intent of uncovering a truer structure of reality or of soothing our anxiety, of exposing myths or of following them through, the outcome of philosophical activity is always the destabilizing, unsettling generation of doubts, of objections, of criticisms. It follows that this activity is intrinsically a ''dialogue'', that philosophy is first and foremost philosophical discussion, that it requires bringing out conflicting points of view, paying careful, sympathetic attention to their structure, and using this dialectic to articulate one''s approach, to make it richer, more thoughtful, more open to variation and play. And it follows that the spirit which one brings to this activity must be one of tolerance, of always suspecting one''s own blindness and consequently looking with unbiased eye in every corner, without fearing to pass a (fallible) judgment on what is there but also without failing to show interest and respect. Topoi''s structure is a direct expression of this view. To maximize discussion, we devote most or all of this issue to a single topic. And, since discussion is only interesting when it is conducted seriously and responsibly, we usually request the collaboration of a guest-editor, an expert who will identify contributors and interact with them in a constructive way. Because we do not feel tied to any definite philosophical theme (or set of them), we choose the topic with absolute freedom, looking for what is blossoming and thriving, occasionally betting on what might - partly through our attention - ''begin'' to blossom and thrive. And because we do not want our structur e to become our own straightjacket, we are open to contributions not fitting the ''topos'', and do not rule out in principle the possibility of topic-less issues.
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