Talk Pia Campeggiani (Brain & Cognition Seminar)

19.12.2023 12:15 – 13:15

Mixed feelings: conflicting valence from Socrates to Russell

Prof. Pia Campeggiani, University of Bologna

‘Affective valence’ typically (even if not exclusively) refers to the way an emotion or an affective state feels in hedonic terms, that is the quality of the (dis)pleasure we subjectively experience. In this sense, fear usually feels unpleasant, while amusement and joy feel good. Yet, in some cases affective experience seemingly feels good and bad at the same time, as when we enjoy tragic drama or the thrills of riding a roller coaster. Even if ambivalent emotions, conflicting passions, and bittersweet feelings are commonplace experiences, philosophical theories and psychological models often fail to account for them satisfactorily. In this talk, I will offer an overview of two well-known attempts at explaining mixed affective states away: Socrates’ (Plato’s Socrates in the Protagoras) and James Russell’s. Notwithstanding the historical and the cultural distance, their strategies are interestingly similar. I shall criticize both with an argument from phenomenology.


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Zoom Meeting :
https://unige.zoom.us/j/66750276514?pwd=NGN1dnhFcjRwNFBaS2QxZCtRMDFXZz09
Meeting ID: 667 5027 6514
Passcode: 355201

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Bâtiment: Campus Biotech

H8-01-D

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