On Attention and Norms: An Opinionated Review of Recent Work

How might attention intersect with normative issues and the psychology surrounding them? This survey connects three phenomena discussed in ethics and epistemology: salience, vigilance (attunement) and attentional character. I connect these phenomena drawing on an empirical understanding of attention and bias in the biology of human agents that enriches the relevant psychology. Section 1 establishes a common ground conception of attention that is no more controversial than the established empirical paradigms for attention. This allows for an explication of bias needed to explain action and attention, an explication that is both biological and philosophical. With this in place, I emphasize historical biases associated with learning and experience. Section 2 presents an analysis of automaticity and control, concepts needed for an adequate characterization of skill. Historical biases are revealed as automatic, so not controlled through intention. The automatization of attention is central to acquiring skills and excellence in light of normative standards. Section 3 argues that salience involves the deployment of attention, while section 4 characterizes vigilance not merely as a disposition but as an active orientation to attend. Vigilance is one type of attunement, and the set of attunements constitute the agent’s varied orientations to deploy attention. This informs the idea of attentional character as the goal of a normatively sensitive upbringing where appropriate attention is automatized through learning. Section 6 draws on these lessons to assess one common form of epistemic bias in academia and attempts to debias to establish virtuous attentional character.