Lucas Battich is a PhD candidate in philosophy and cognitive science at the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences and the Faculty of Philosophy, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich. He works on perception and socially shared attention, combining tools from philosophy and experimental psychology.
What are you working on right now?
We frequently and effortlessly coordinate our attention with others towards a common focus, what is usually called “joint attention”. Surprisingly, there has been little philosophical work on this basic capacity. What puts the “jointness” in joint attention? What roles it plays in our social lives? Do we directly perceive someone else’s attention? In my doctoral project I aim to elucidate the relational nature of joint attention, and how it is implicated in cases involving different sense modalities. I co-wrote an article on the role of perceptual experience for characterizing joint attention, and I’m continuing to work on this issue. Research on joint attention is also usually focused on vision. But we normally coordinate our attention in sensory rich ways. Which role do the other senses play? In a recent article co-authored with my colleagues at LMU, we propose a multisensory approach to assess the contributions of different senses for establishing and maintaining joint attention. This approach opens up new questions. Does engaging in joint attention impact the way we process multisensory events in the world? Are two perceivers better than one in detecting and discriminating ambiguous sensory signals? How do we experience someone else’s attention across the senses?
What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
Having the opportunity to work doing something I love, alongside very smart and cool people. If I can keep it that way into the future, that’ll certainly be an accomplishment (and some luck, of course).
What do you like to do outside work?
I generally do sports and try to keep active. I love getting out of the city for a hike in the mountains. I grew up in Argentina near the Andes mountains, and my parents would take me outdoors since I was little. Thankfully, Munich is very close to the beautiful Alps. I also love rock climbing and bouldering. Even if it sounds risky, there is something soothing in rock climbing. It’s like having a puzzle on the wall, and you have to figure out the right steps and movements to crack it. I like how this forces you to focus exclusively on the climb and forget about anything that might be worrying you.
What books are currently on your ‘to read’ list?
I have way too many books in my reading list! But among on the top of the list there is, first, “The Shared World” by Axel Seemann, where he gives an account of the sort of knowledge we have when we perceive and act on things together with others, and how individuals achieve their shared experience of the world. I’m also starting to read “Representations in Cognitive Science” by Nicholas Shea. Much of the debate on mental representation is focused on conscious beliefs, desires and intentions. Instead, Shea’s account of representation refreshingly focuses on more basic mental states that need not be conscious: the sort of representations, in fact, which are commonly used in cognitive science. Finally, I look forward to finally reading Ruth Millikan’s latest book “Beyond Concepts”, where she further develops her influential and original account of cognition.
What would your childhood self say if someone told you that you would grow up to be a philosopher?
Like many children, I was obsessed with dinosaurs and wanted to be a paleontologist. But I was also obsessed with and puzzled by many things. When asked what I wanted to be when growing up, I’d say that having just one profession would be boring. There are so many interesting things out there! So maybe my childhood self wouldn’t be much surprised. In some respects, I still think in this interdisciplinary way: I cannot conceive of philosophy of mind without engagement with current research in cognitive science and neuroscience.
What’s your favorite quote?
Not a quote perhaps, but I often think of Rabelais’ list of choicest books at the library of St. Victor, and how they’d make great philosophy books: “The Raver and idle Talker in cases of Conscience”, “The Flimflams of the Law”.
What technology do you wish the human race could discover/create/invent right now?
Throughout modern history, scientists and philosophers have understood the brain and the mind with the help of technological metaphors. These have included complex clockwork and hydraulic machines, telegraph networks, and telephone exchanges. Today, many philosophers and scientists view both the brain and the mind as some sort of computer. Technological metaphors certainly guide and shape our ideas, but the computer analogy could also be limiting our thinking. I’m excited about the prospect of new technologies that can reframe and boost our understanding of how the mind and the brain work. I’m not sure what this technology would look like, but it’d sure be exciting.
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Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.
