Speaker 
Prof. Giovanna Colombetti
Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy

Recent debates on the nature of the emotions include what has been called the “situated perspective”. Its proponents criticize the general tendency, in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, to consider emotions only as states, or processes, of a person’s brain or body (a position also known as “individualism”), with little consideration for the role of environment. As a remedy, scholars suggest to regard emotions as scaffolded by the environment, both synchronically and diachronically. In this talk, Prof. Colombetti will present this notion of “scaffolded emotions” in detail, explain why she thinks it is valuable, and suggest various ways in which it can be developed further.