The Phenomenology of Affect

The close study of human affectivity has its roots in the very early years of the phenomenological movement in the work of the Brentano School and the Munich Phenomenological Circle, especially in the writings of figures such as Husserl, Scheler, Stein and Voigtlander. This interest was continued in the subsequent work of figures such as Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. If this broad research project dropped away noticeably in the post-war years, it has returned to the centre of interest over the last few decades in the so-called “affective turn” in phenomenology.

This conference will bring together scholars working on a broad range of areas within this field of the phenomenology of affectivity, including those that give historical readings, and those that engage with more contemporary research. In preferring the terminology of “affectivity” in preference to the “phenomenology of emotions” more specifically, the conference title signals a deliberately broad openness to a range of phenomena that include not only particular episodic emotional states, but also pervasive moods of various kinds (Stimmungen), intentional modalities, intersubjective attunements to the world (Befindlichkeiten), experiential qualities, and evaluative positionings. Framed in this way, the range of intersecting themes of research are many.

• Dermot Moran (Boston College)
• Claude Romano (University of Paris-Sorbonne and Australian Catholic University)
• Andrew Benjamin (University of Technology, Sydney and Monash University)
• Robyn Horner (Australian Catholic University)

There will be presentations by scholars in Europe, the United States of America and Australia held across the two days.