Friday, November 7, 2025

4:00 – 6:00 PM

Royce Hall 314

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Join us on November 7th, 2025 for a colloquium with Ram Neta, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. The talk will take place from 4:00 – 6:00 PM in Royce 314 with a reception to follow.

A Puzzle Concerning Reason and the Emotions

Each of the following theses enjoys some support in recent philosophical discussions.

1. Emotions, like judgments and resolutions, can be exercises of rational agency, and held in light of various considerations that seem to the agent to support them.
2. Emotions, unlike judgments or resolutions, cannot constitute our drawing the conclusion of some reasoning.
3. Any exercise of rational agency, held in light of considerations that seem to support it, can constitute our drawing the conclusion of reasoning from those same considerations.

Proponents of thesis (1) (e.g., Olivia Bailey, Rachel Achs) have sought to argue against thesis (2).  Proponents of thesis (2) (e.g., Conner Schultz, Nate Sharadin) have sought to argue against thesis (1).  In this paper, I defend both theses (1) and (2), and give an explanation of why thesis (3) is false.  This explanation will shed light on how inference differs from other forms of reasons-responsiveness.  It will also expose an ambiguity in Hieronymi’s notion of “evaluative control”.

Ram Neta is Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he has taught since 2002.  He is the author of dozens of articles, primarily in epistemology.  These have been published in The Philosophical Review, Nous, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, and many other venues.  He is also the editor of a number of volumes, including a forthcoming volume on the Philosophy of John McDowell.

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