ABSTRACT
“Global Attentiveness”, as defined in this chapter, is a heightened awareness in all modalities of experience at once. Some Buddhist traditions of mindfulness meditation aim to cultivate such a state, in part because they see experience derived through Global Attentiveness as providing a kind of wise discernment through which one can know for oneself what is meaningful, ethical, and good, and what is not. In this chapter, first, the state of Global Attentiveness is characterized in a way that enables the articulation of a norm that is not indexed to specific content to be attended to, nor to specific contexts in which to be attentive. Secondly, drawing on recent work on idealization, this chapter proposes that, for certain purposes, one should think and act as if the norm that one should be in a state of Global Attentiveness applies from any and all human normative perspectives. Bringing these two points together and drawing on suggestions from Buddhist meditative teachings, this chapter develops a means to ground normative debates across human cultural contexts, using the example of a cosmopolitan discussion of anger in political activism.
