Prof. Anna Brinkerhoff Publishes "The Cognitive Demands of Friendship"

Anna Brinkerhoff published a new article, "The Cognitive Demands of Friendship," in the Pacific Philosophical Quarterly:

Abstract: Recently, some philosophers have argued that friendship demands that we have positive beliefs about our friends even when such beliefs go against the evidence. Call this the doxastic account of the cognitive demands of friendship. I consider both motivations and worries for the doxastic account before developing a new account: the attentional account. According to it, friendship places demands on how we direct our attention. I argue that the attentional account accommodates the considerations that motivate the doxastic account and weathers the worries that trouble it. Along the way, I question the assumption that friendship’s cognitive demands center on positivity.

The full article may be accessed here.

Anna Brinkerhoff is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University.