CALL FOR PAPERS
“The Phenomenology and Science of Emotions”
Special Issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences
Guest Editors:
Andreas Elpidorou ([email protected])
Lauren Freeman ([email protected])
Phenomenology, perhaps more than any other single movement in philosophy, has been key in bringing the
emotions to the foreground of philosophical consideration. This is in large part due to the ways in which
emotions, according to phenomenological analyses, are revealing of basic structures of human existence.
Indeed, it is partly, and to some phenomenologists, primarily through our emotions that the world is
disclosed to us, that we become present to and make sense to ourselves, and that we relate to and engage
with others. A phenomenological study of emotions is thus meant not only to help us to understand
ourselves, but also to allow us to see and to make sense of the meaningfulness of our worldly and social
existence.
Within the last few decades, the emotions have re-emerged more generally as a topic of great philosophical
interest and importance. Philosophers, along with psychologists, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists
have engaged in inter- and intra-disciplinary debates concerning the ontology and phenomenology of
emotions, the epistemic and cognitive dimensions of emotions, the rationality of emotions, the role that
emotions play in moral judgments, the role that our bodies play in the experience and constitution of
emotions, the gendered dimension of emotions (and whether or not there is one), the temporality of
emotions, and the cultural specificity of emotions, to name just a few.
Contemporary phenomenological and scientific considerations of the emotions, however, have treated and
continue to treat them differently. The former takes a first-personal approach to the emotions that is guided
by, rooted in, and engaged with our experiences in the world, where the felt quality of emotional states
provides important insights into the meaningfulness of human experiences. The later often takes a thirdpersonal and sub-personal approach to the emotions and focuses on their cognitive architecture and
neurobiological mechanisms, which can be detached from and unconcerned with the way that emotions are
experienced in and connected to contextual, complex worldly human experiences. Both kinds and levels of
analysis are important for understanding the emotions, but at the same time, seem to be at odds with one
another.
It is at this juncture that we would like to take up and explore the question of the emotions in this special
issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the
journal, we invite papers on the phenomenology and science of emotions that cross the disciplinary
boundaries of phenomenology, psychology, and the cognitive sciences. Papers can engage both continental
and analytic traditions and can take an historical, contemporary, applied, or a theoretical approach to the
emotions. Our aim is to consider how these different fields and approaches can inform and influence one
another to shed light on contemporary debates about the emotions.
Some suggested topics include:

Critical engagement with historical phenomenological approaches to the emotions.

Critical engagement with contemporary phenomenological approaches to the emotions.
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
Phenomenological accounts of specific emotions such as grief, anxiety, love, lust, joy, anger,
shame, guilt, or disgust.

Consideration of whether and how phenomenological approaches to the emotions can and do
engage with scientific and conceptual approaches.

Phenomenological and scientific considerations of:
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Emotions and disorders
The temporality of emotions
The embodiment of emotions
Gender and emotion
Emotions and oppression
Individual and collective or group emotions
The difference between mood, affect, feeling, and emotion
The rationality/irrationality of emotions
The controllability of emotions
The relationship between morality and emotions
The relationship between emotions and judgments

A consideration of how and whether phenomenological accounts of emotions can engage with:
o Perceptual theories of emotion
o Cognitivist theories of emotion

Critiques of first personal accounts of the emotions

Critical account of the difference between emotional states and embodied feelings
*Submission information*
Word limit: 8000 words
Deadline for submissions: August 15, 2013
Publication is expected in 2014/15
There will be a small number of invited contributions, thus leaving a generous space for submitted papers.
Peer review: all submissions will be subject to a double blind peer-review process. Please prepare your
submission for blind reviewing.
Submissions
should
be
made
directly
to
the
journal’s
online
submission
website
(http://www.editorialmanager.com/phen) indicating: special issue “The Phenomenology and
Science of Emotions.”
For further details, please check the website of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences:
http://www.springer.com/philosophy/philosophical+traditions/journal/11097
For any further questions regarding the special issue please contact either Andreas Elpidorou
([email protected]) or Lauren Freeman ([email protected])
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