Dear all, The fourth meeting of this term's Cambridge Mind Seminar will be on Tuesday 5 June at 11am. Anastasia Berg (Corpus Christi) will present a paper. The Cambridge Mind Seminar is an advanced philosophy of mind seminar with short talks by local and not-so-local people, followed by discussion.
Meetings take place on Tuesdays from 11:00-13:00. Refreshments will be provided. Note the location: Angevin room, Queens’ College. The Emotions as Modes of Practical Self-Consciousness Anastasia Berg (Corpus Christi) 5 June, 11:00 (Angevin room, Queens' College) Abstract: The study of the emotions has enjoyed a resurgence in philosophy as well as in the cognitive sciences. This dual disciplinary interest reflects the nature of the subject matter—emotions are very much like Descartes's pineal gland, the place mind and body most closely, but also most mysteriously, interact. In attempting to account for their diverse and elusive features, scientists and philosophers alike have traditionally reduced, assimilated or analogized emotions to other kinds of physical and mental states: feelings, beliefs/cognitions, perceptions. However, as has been widely noted, each theory seems to miss an important aspect of the phenomena in question. Moreover, what is less noted is that all theories neglect to appreciate the close connection between emotion and action. Taking a cue from Kant I offer an alternative account which both captures what is promising in each of the dominant philosophical approaches as well as secures the close link between emotion and action. I propose that emotions are constituted by our awareness of the agreement and disagreement between the exercise of our various capacities—primarily, our capacity to act—and the world around us. Emotions do not motivate action, but are a form of self-consciousness which constitutes the subject’s recognition of herself as a vulnerable, non-self-sufficient agent: an agent that acts but is also acted upon—dependent on the cooperation (and so sensitive to the hindrance) of her environment in the pursuit of her ends. Cambridge Mind Seminar Easter 2018 Schedule • 1 May: Henry Shevlin (CFI, Downing College) • 8 May: Solveig Aasen (Oslo) • 15 May: Neil Barton (Vienna) • 22-29 May: No meeting • 5 June: Anastasia Berg (Corpus Christi) [Angevin Room, Queens’ College] • 12 June: Umrao Sethi (CUNY) [Angevin Room, Queens’ College] • 19 June: Sophie Archer (Keble College, Oxford) [Angevin Room, Queens’ College] _______________________ Dr Maarten Steenhagen Lecturer and Director of Studies Faculty of Philosophy / Queens’ College University of Cambridge _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
