Psychology, Emotion, and the Human Sciences

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University of Windsor
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Psychology, Emotion, and the Human Sciences
A Symposium at the University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario Canada

20 to 21 April 2012

Call for Papers
Deadline 1 November 2011

Keynote Speaker: Professor Stephen Leighton, Philosophy, Queen's University, Kingston

In Alchemies of the Mind: Rationality and the Emotions [Cambridge, 1999], Jon Elster argues that "with an important subset of the emotions [for example, regret, relief, envy, malice, pity, indignation, ...] we can learn more from moralists, novelists, and playwrights than from the cumulative findings of scientific psychology." Elster then explores the work of both ancient and early modern moral philosophers in order to substantiate his argument.

This symposium will explore Elster's assertions: what can contemporary 'scientific psychology,' barely 150 years old, teach us about the emotions that early modern literary and philosophical inquiry cannot? Does psychology [of various sorts] deserve its status as the discipline of feeling? What can contemporary philosophical work teach us about feeling and emotion? Are there viable ways of bringing historical and contemporary emotional inquiry into contact? What insight can various forms of inquiry bring to the increasingly prominent issue of affective education [the education of emotions, dispositions, and values]? What is the status of emotional inquiry across disciplines?

Abstracts for twenty-minute papers are invited by scholars engaged in the history of psychology, contemporary psychology and sociology, philosophy, literary studies, the history of emotion, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and informal logic and argumentation. Papers may treat any period from 1500 to the present. Maximum 500 word abstracts should be sent [in word or rtf files] by 1 November 2011 to spender@uwindsor.ca.

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

- rhetoric and the emotions
- emotion and informal logic
- argument and emotion
- affective education
- emotion in the classroom
- the history of psychology
- neuroscience and emotion
- the passions in history
- psychoanalysis and emotion
- the sociology of emotion

The organisers are hopeful that participants are aware of, and incorporate, the history of emotion in their respective disciplines or areas of inquiry. Selected papers will be considered for a collection of essays, and all applicants will be informed by 15 November 2011 about their participation in the symposium.

For more information, contact Stephen Pender, spender@uwindsor.ca

With all best wishes,
Stephen Pender

Stephen Pender, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, English
Research Leadership Chair, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation, and Rhetoric
University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4
t: 519.253.3000 [2307] f: 519.971.3620 e: spender@uwindsor.ca