Source: Université de Genève

Université de Genève, 20-21 mai 2011

This conference forms part of the NCCR ‘Affective Dynamics’ project, the aim of which is to study the temporal dynamics of emotions. In psychology and philosophy, emotions are traditionally studied without paying much attention to the relations they bear to the passage of time. This conference hopes to remedy this lack of attention by presenting a range of philosophical papers that explore the temporal dynamics of emotion through studying various types of relations characterizing emotional life — some essentially temporal in nature, some partially so: among them explanatory, definitional, justificatory and narrative relations. We hypothesize that describing these multifarious relations will prove especially helpful for understanding the nature of single emotional episodes, as well as the underexplored connections they bear to related affective phenomena such as sentiments, moods, character traits and affective dispositions in general. Some of the themes to be covered in the conference will include:

1. •Emotions and their (logical, temporal) parts
2. •Relations (causal, epistemic, normative) between emotional episodes
3. •Emotional evaluation and re-evaluation
4. •Relations between emotions and emotional dispositions (temperaments, character traits, sentiments, cares, concerns, etc)
5. •Emotions, emotional dispositions and the self (personality, identity)
6. •Emotions, imagination, and mental time travel
7. •Emotions and their place in the mental realm (including their relation to desires, intentions and judgement)
8. •The affective life in general
9. •Narrative and emotion: conceptions of self and self-evaluation in time; understanding emotions through narrative structure

Conference organisers:

Julien Deonna (University of Geneva): julien.deonna@unige.ch

Cain Todd (Lancaster University & University of Fribourg): c.todd@lancaster.ac.uk

Programme:

Friday, May 20

9.30 – 11          Michael Brady (University of Glasgow): “Emotion, attention and re-evaluation“

11 – 11.15        Coffee

11.15 – 12.45   Adam Morton (University of Alberta): “Emotions with multiple points of view“

12.45 – 2          Lunch

2 – 3.30            Greg Currie (University of Nottingham): “Emotions under the control of a fiction“

3.30 – 3.45       Coffee

3.45 – 5.15       Gianfranco Soldati (University of Fribourg): “Self-knowledge and rational unity“

Saturday, May 21

9.30 – 11          Nancy Sherman (Georgetown University): “Virtue and accountability for emotions“

11 – 11.15        Coffee

11.15 – 12.45   Peter Goldie (University of Manchester): “Emotion as a process: the case of grief“

12.45 – 2          Lunch

2 – 3.30            Sabine Roeser (Delft University of Technology): “Emotions and moral knowledge“

3.30 – 3.45       Coffee

3.45 – 5.15       Simon Blackburn (University of Cambridge): “Emotions: episodes, or dispositions?

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