James McCarthy
Thesis
Emotion, Choice and Responsibility
Supervisors
Peter Goldie and Sean Crawford
Research
My research focuses on two aspects of emotions. To what extent do/can we (directly) choose our emotions and to what extent are we responsible for our emotions. Concerning the first question, different emotional theories provide different positions. For example, certain Non-Cognitive accounts claim that our emotions are not chosen, whilst certain Cognitive accounts claim that we do choose our emotions. My research focuses on intermediate territory between the two assessing (a) what it is that we are believed to choose (or not to choose) and (b) to what extent choice is a real possibility. Recently my research has led to a investigation of philosophical accounts of (emotionally infused) perception and to what extent we can (a) choose the content of our perceptions and (b) to what extent we can be responsible for what we perceive.
Teaching experience
- Crtical Thinking
- Knowledge and Reality