# The Other Person in Joint Attention - A Relational Approach **Abstract:** John Campbell recommends a relational view on joint attention. In this paper, I ask what his position implies for the perceptual experience of jointly engaged persons, and suggest that this experience can be accounted for by taking seriously the notion of intersubjectivity. I provide an account of what I call the ‘direct acquaintance’ of jointly engaged persons with one another. To be so acquainted is to enjoy an experience of feelings that are shared in a particular way. I spell out what it is for feelings to be so shared and end by briefly introducing the idea that the subjects of such feelings may be best understood as part of a system that also consists of aspects of their natural and social environment. A. Direct Acquaintance and the Relational View John Campbell (2002) argues for what he calls a ‘relational’ view of perceptual experience. On such a view, ‘the qualitative character of the experience is constituted by the qualitative character of the scene perceived’ (p. 114). The object enters directly in the individuation of the experience; to use Russell’s term (if not quite his concept2), the Correspondence: Axel Seemann, Associate Professor, Dept. of Philosophy, Bentley University, 175 Forest Street, Waltham, MA 02452. Email: [email protected] I would like to thank Julian Kiverstein, Dan Hutto, Max Cappuccio, and the participants in a conference on Joint Attention that took place at Bentley University in October 2009 for their helpful comments. Thanks are also due **Authors:** [[Joint Attention]]