The David Braybrooke Memorial Lecture in the Austin and Hempel Series
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Watch Dr. Michael Hymers's interview about
Weekly Colloquium
SUBJECT: This weekās colloquium (note unusual location)
Here are the details about this weekās Philosophy Colloquium. The colloquium will be held from 3:00-5:00 pm (Atlantic time) on Friday, April 25 both in person, in Room 2132 of the Marion McCain Arts and Social Science Building, and online via zoom (details below).
Speaker: Mark Fortney (Dalhousie)
The Attention Economy and The Right to Attention:
Some Lessons from TheravÄda and MahÄyÄna Thought
In the transactions of the attention economy, users exchange their attention for access to various digital services and the providers of those services auction off usersā attention to the highest bidding advertiser. In a reflection on these transactions, Bartek Chomanski has argued that there is a right to attention that has two aspects: a right to be free from distraction and a right to direct oneās attention as one pleases. He does this with the goal of setting the stage for future thought about whether the attention economy is ever a part of violations of the right to attention, but doesnāt take a firm stance on that question.
Drawing my inspiration from some Buddhist texts, I argue that there is a third aspect to the right to attention that Chomanski overlooked. This paper of mine was recently published at the Journal of Buddhist Ethics (). In the presentation, Iāll discuss my paper, but also go a bit beyond the paper in terms of discussing the current philosophical literature on the attention economy and some thoughts about future directions that my paper may point towards.
Zoom:
Dal Philosophy is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Colloquium
Time: April 25, 2025 03:00 PM Atlantic Time (Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 848 5614 9363
Passcode: 022845
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AFFILIATED GROUPS
- Atlantic Canada Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy
- Dalhousie Women Around Philosophy
- Evolutionary Studies Group
- Animal Studies Group
- The Canadian Philosophical Association - see the CPA'sĀ
- The Dalhousie Philosophy Equity Committee
DEPARTMENT KUDOS
- Clarisse Paronās paper, āEugenic Logics and the Pathologization of Childrenās Bodies: Evaluating the American Pediatric Obesity Guidelines for Harmful Scientific and Medical Conductā is the winner of the 2025 Irving and Jeanne Glovin Award.Ā CongratulationsĀ Clarisse!
- CongratulationsĀ to Tom Vinci on the eve of publication of his chapter āSensibility and Intellect in Descartesā, to appear in the forthcoming bookĀ The Cartesian Mind,ĢżEdited ByĀ ,Ģż,ĢżĀ (Routledge, 2026). Tomās chapter marks 51 years since his first publication in 1971 in theĀ Journal of the History of Philosophy!
- CongratulationsĀ to Dr. Erik Nelson (who defended his dissertation last summer) on winning a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship under the supervision ofĀ Dr. Kristin Andrews at York University.
- CongratulationsĀ to Erik Nelson who defended his PhD dissertation,ĢżThe Nonlinguistic Mind: Nonlinguistic Concepts, Normativity and Animal Cognition, this June.
- CongratulationsĀ to our PhD student, Clarisse Paron, for being awarded theĀ Ā for presenting on of the best two student papers at the Annual Meeting, June 2024. The title of her paper is āAre the New American Pediatric Obesity Guidelines Eugenic? Eugenic Logics and the Medicalization and Pathologization of Childrenās Bodies.ā
- CongratulationsĀ to our PhD students, Lara Millman and Clarisse Paron, for being awarded Dalhousieās Ā Presidentās Graduate/Undergraduate Student Teaching AwardĀ (2 of 3 available university-wide awards!)
- CongratulationsĀ to Dr. Travis LaCroix, who has accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Durham University, starting in the fall of 2024.
- Congratulations to Dr. Travis LaCroix, who has been award an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council! Travisās research project is entitled āPhilosophy on the Spectrum: The Philosophy of Autism and Autistic Philosophy.ā
- Tyler Hildebrandās paper āInductive Reasoning Involving Social Kindsā (with Barrett Emerick) has been published in theĀ Journal of the American Philosophical Association.Ā
- CongratulationsĀ to Kayla Beals, who is the 2024 recipient of the F. Hilton Page Memorial Prize, awarded to a graduating student whose thesis is judged to be outstanding.Ā
- CongratulationsĀ to George Arnott, who is the 2024 recipient of the Roland Puccetti Memorial Award for the best essay submitted by a student in a 3000- or 4000-level class. Georgeās essay is entitled "The Virtuous Cohort" Habituation and Character-Friendship as Rational Motivators for Aristotelian Courage.