Carolyn Dicey Jennings.
Philosopher and Cognitive Scientist.
About Me
I am Professor of Philosophy and will be visiting Berkeley for Fall 2024, but my home institution is University of California, Merced. My work is based in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience and aims at understanding the nature of attention and its impact on the mind (e.g. on perception, consciousness, and action). Distinctive about my work is the claim that attention is directed by a subject, or self. I defend this view, for example, in The Attending Mind (CUP 2020): I argue that evidence from neuroscience points to the existence of an emergent subject that directs attention, which I define in natural terms. I also have a long-standing research project that tracks employment for philosophy PhDs, Academic Philosophy Data and Analysis, funded for much of its existence by the American Philosophical Association. Outside of work I am a certified yoga teacher and an uncertified (but keen) gardener. I live with my husband and two dogs in Merced.
Upcoming Talks
"Collective Attention" Invited Talk for Work in Progress Talk, UC Berkeley, November 2024
"The Attention Mechanism," Invited Talk for AI, Consciousness, and Culture Workshop, April 2025
Presentations
Publications
Collaborators
Grants
Books
Book Reviews
Nico Silins. CUP Review.
“While centered on attention, the self, and action, the breadth of Carolyn Dicey Jennings’ rich work is extraordinary, with important discussions of a wide range of subfields of philosophy (not to mention Cat Power), informed by an uncommon openness to a diverse range of resources in past and present philosophy and psychology.”
J. R. Shook. Choice Reviews.
"In this concise, lucid book … Jennings offers a reconciliation between agent-centered freedom and compatibilism. Philosophical psychology is enriched by this valuable exploration."
Jesse Prinz. The Philosophical Review.
"Jennings offers fresh perspective on the nature of attention, and its role in meaningful perception, consciousness, action, and responsibility. Each chapter can be read separately, but they hang together well, and each reflects her thesis that attention is essentially linked to the self."
Videos and Papers
Invited Talk with University College London's Consciousness Club on "Consciousness as Relation" (Oct. 2024)
New Books Network Interview with Owen Bennett-Jones on Attention, Technology, and Creativity (Oct. 2023)
Idea Cast Interview with Justin McSweeny on Attention and Mental Control (Mar. 2023)
Reason Through Interview with Jacob Garcia on The Attending Mind (Dec. 2022)
Brain Inspired Interview with Paul Middlebrooks on The Attending Mind (Nov. 2022)
"Does Consciousness Emerge?" Talk at Models of Consciousness Conference, Stanford (Sep. 2022)
UC Merced's Faculty Author Series Talk on The Attending Mind (Mar. 2022)
Mind, Technology, and Society Talk at UC Merced on The Attending Mind (Sep. 2020)
Consciousness Live! Interview with Richard Brown on The Attending Mind (Nov. 2019)
Paper Downloads
Consciousness and Mind (forthcoming) Cambridge Handbook of Analytic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press
The Death and Rebirth of Attention (forthcoming) The Institute of Art and Ideas
Attention, Technology, and Creativity (2023) Scenes of Attention: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry, Columbia University Press
Dynamic Attentional Mechanisms of Creativity (2023) Philosophy and the Mind Sciences.
Attention and The Mind (2022), a comic collaboration with Pino Cao on The Attending Mind
Attention and Mental Control (2022) Cambridge University Press
Networks in philosophy: Social networks and employment in academic philosophy (2022) Metaphilosophy
Academic Placement Data and Analysis (APDA) 2021 survey of philosophy Ph.D. students and recent graduates: Demographic data, program ratings, academic job placement, and nonacademic careers (2022) Metaphilosophy
The Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Diversity of Philosophy Students and Faculty in the United States: Recent Data from Several Sources (2021) Philosophical Topics
Attention in Skilled Behavior: an Argument for Pluralism (2021) Review of Philosophy and Psychology
Too much attention, too little self? (2020) Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
Practical Realism about the Self (2020) Common Sense Metaphysics: Themes From the Philosophy of Lynne Rudder Baker
The Diversity and Inclusivity Survey: Final Report (2019) APA Funded Projects
The Diversity and Inclusivity Survey for Philosophy PhD Students and Graduates: Preliminary 2018 Report APA Funded Projects
Toward a Neurophysiological Foundation for Altered States of Consciousness (2018) Brain and Behavioral Sciences
I Attend, Therefore I Am (2017) Aeon
Academic Placement Data and Analysis: 2017 Final Report APA Funded Projects
Women in Philosophy (2017) Public Affairs Quarterly
Action without Attention (2016) Analysis
Academic Placement Data and Analysis: 2016 Final Report APA Funded Projects
Consciousness without Attention (2015) Journal of the American Philosophical Association
Attention and Perceptual Organization (2015) Philosophical Studies
The Standard Theory of Conscious Perception (2015)Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society
Academic Placement Data and Analysis: 2015 Report Update APA Funded Projects
Academic Placement Data and Analysis: 2015 Final Report APA Funded Projects
Attention by Wayne Wu (2014) Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
The Subject of Attention (2012) Synthese
Inductive Parsimony and the Methodological Argument (2012) Consciousness & Cognition
Properly Pragmatic: A Response to Corns and Campbell (2012) Consciousness & Cognition
The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger (2010) Journal of Consciousness Studies
It Takes Two: Ethical Dualism in the Vegetative State (2009) Neuroethics
Contact Me
5200 N. Lake Road, Merced CA 95343
Phone: +1 209 600 9654
Email: cjennings3@ucmerced.edu