Emotions and Agency (C. Tappolet)

Conférence | Talk

Christine Tappolet

(Université de Montréal)

Emotions and Agency

What is the relationship between emotions and reasons? This question is central to the assessment of the common claim that emotions constitute a threat to the kind of agency that is often considered to be characteristic of human being, namely, autonomous agency. This is so because the capacity to respond to reasons is often thought to be essential to autonomous agency. The focus will be on cases of akratic actions caused by emotions that conflict with the agent's better judgement. I shall propose that even in such dysfunctional cases, we are able, under certain conditions, not only to track reasons but also to be reason-responsive when we act on our emotions.

Friday, November 21st, 2014

3:00pm

University of Ottawa

Desmarais Hall (55, Laurier East)

Room 8161