The Heart of Ethics: The Role of Emotions in Value Theory

Conference Theme

Emotions play a crucial role in shaping the quality and significance of our lives, and have steadily come to enjoy a more prominent role in ethics. Today, there are many competing theories of what emotions are and when they are fitting, which in turn have implications across metaethics, normative ethics, and moral psychology. These developments have, for example, revived sentimentalist accounts of the nature of normative properties and our knowledge of them. Recent investigations into the temporal dimension of emotions have also sought to uncover when and why (if ever) grief may cease to be an appropriate response to loss, or resentment to a wrong. Further, innovations in the philosophy of emotions affect long-standing debates in aesthetics, such as the paradox of painful art and the epistemic value of artworks. Theorists across feminist philosophy and philosophy of race have also drawn attention to the important ways in which one’s gender and race affect one’s emotional landscape. Yet another development is the effect of emerging research in non-Western philosophy; these traditions offer alternative and under-discussed perspectives on the ethical importance of certain emotions.

The primary aim of this conference is to take stock of the latest developments in what emotions are and their connection to long-standing questions across value theory. The papers presented will illuminate our understanding of emotions and the roles that they play in our normative lives

Conference Program 

10:25am-10:40am

Morning coffee, pastries, and fruit

10:40am- 12pm

Session 1: Sara Protasi, Keynote Speaker (University of Puget Sound), 'On Courage & Fear'

12pm-1:15pm

Lunch

1:15pm-2:25pm

Session 2: Julia Mosquera (Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm), ''Conflicts and emotions: A new problem from a long-standing value inquiry'

Commentator: Joseph Masotti (Florida State University)

2:25pm-2:40pm

Quick comfort break

2:40pm-3:50pm

Session 3: Adrienne Martin (Claremont McKenna College), 'Directed Duties of Intimate Emotion'

Commentator : Gerald Lang (University of Leeds)

3:50pm-4:20pm

Afternoon tea

4:20pm-5:30pm

Session 4: Alba Curry (University of Leeds), 'The Normative Landscape of Poilitical Emotions'

Commentator: Joe Wells (University of St Andrews)

5:50pm-7:10pm

Drinks

7:15pm

Conference dinner