Openness in Situations of Joint Attention

Abstract

Openness is a distinctive feature in the episodes of joint attention. In such an episode, everything is in the open, nothing is hidden (PEACOCKE, 2005, p. 298). But what is this metaphorical description supposed to grasp? On the common knowledge approach, openness is characterized by an infinite list of iterated perceptual knowledge attributions. This approach overloads the cognitive costs of joint attention. On the relational approach, openness is a primitive notion; the phenomenon results from the fusion of perceptions between the agents, a singular experience of co-percipience that explains joint attention for free. This paper aims to argue for an intermediate approach to explain openness. We offer here an account of openness in terms of non-wellfounded situations. We shall argue that it not only fully characterizes mutual awareness in a finite adequate way but that it also preserves the low cognitive burden of the co-presence situation.