CFP: Negative Affectivity and Practical Possibilities

Negative Affectivity and Practical Possibilities

October 16-17, 2024

Hosted by the Department of Philosophy (University of Graz) and the Division of Medical Psychology, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapeutic Medicine (Medical University of Graz)

Submission deadline: July 26, 2024

Keynote speakers: Jagna Brudzińska (Cologne, Warsaw) & Guido Cusinato (Verona)

Description:

Affects and emotions play a significant role in our lives as epistemic subjects and moral agents. This is reflected in our theoretical commitments, as well as in our practical agency: our affectivity informs, expands, or constricts our practical possibilities and self-understanding. Strong negative affects can be especially disruptive to our mental health and ordinary agentive lives: they can shrink our capacities to act in substantial ways, induce erratic, irrational, or self-destructive behavior, or profoundly corrupt our understanding of the world, ourselves, or other people.

This conference aims to provide philosophers and mental health professionals with the opportunity to jointly discuss and reflect on the theoretical and practical approaches to questions relating to the nature and role of affects in experience. We are particularly interested in the diverse forms of negative affectivity and the ways they interact with one’s sense of agency and practical possibility.

Disciplines such as philosophy of mind and action, ethics, and value theory, as well as fields such as psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychology, and psychoanalysis, are continuously engaging with the topic of affectivity in their work. We invite researchers from these and related fields to contribute to this ongoing interdisciplinary discussion. We welcome submissions in English or German.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

- the distinction between affects and emotions;

- the understanding of (negative) affectivity across disciplines;

- phenomenological or hermeneutical approaches to affectivity and action;

- descriptive and normative aspects of negative emotional experiences;

- negative affectivity and embodiment;

- negative affective experience in mental illness and the sense of self;

- possible positive effects of negative experiences.

Submissions:

We invite you to submit an anonymized abstract of up to 500 words (in English or in German) by July 26, 2024 to [email protected]

Please include a separate file with your name, email address, and affiliation (if any) and put ‘Negative Affectivity Call for Papers’ in the subject line.

For any conference-related questions, please contact:

Bernhard Geißler ([email protected])

Denis Džanić ([email protected])

Organizers:

Bernhard Geißler, Denis Džanić, Sonja Rinofner-Kreidl, Jolana Wagner-Skacel

We are looking forward to your submissions!