We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy Study Group Conference 2017 (our own Derek Matravers is one of the organisers). Please see the message below for details about this exciting event, including the programme and registration. The conference is conceived as a hub of interaction for scholars and students working in the area of music and philosophy: you are warmly welcome, regardless of whether you are giving a paper. Please also note that the early-bird registration offer closes on Wednesday 31st May.

2017 Biennial Conference of the Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy Study Group
Department of Music and Department of Philosophy, King’s College London
13-14 July 2017

MPSG 2017

The OU Philosophy’s Annual Research Conference took place at Chicheley Hall, Milton Keynes, on 4–5 May 2017. All academic staff members presented papers on their current research. The programme can be viewed here.

Top left to bottom right: Sean Cordell, Sophie-Grace Chappell, Manuel Dries, Derek Matravers, Alex Barber, Carolyn Price, Cristina Chimisso, and Jon Pike.

Cristina Chimisso has published a book chapter, entitled ‘Gaston Bachelard’s Places of the Imagination and Images of Space’, in Bruce Janz (ed.), Place, Space and Hermeneutics, Springer 2017 (Contributions to Hermeneutics, vol. 5).

In it, she looks at Bachelard’s hermeneutics of place, or ‘topoanalysis’, in the context of his philosophy of the imagination, and of his wider philosophical project. By going beyond the relatively narrow focus on his The Poetics of Space, she argues, we can achieve a better understanding of Bachelard’s approach to the analysis of space.

Congratulations to PhD candidate Christopher Yorke for the appearance of a publication in Journal for the Philosophy of Sport, the foremost journal in its field.

He considers a thought experiment due to Bernard Suits. Suits imagines a technological utopia, in which all our instrumental needs are satisfied (it’s only a matter of time!) and claims that in this world we would need to play games – which he famously defines as the ‘voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles’. This fact, says Suits, tells us something important: that game playing is the ‘ideal of human existence’. Chris, in ‘Endless summer: What kinds of games will Suits’ utopians play?’, is sceptical.

Carolyn Price has recently become co-editor of Emotion Researcher, the newsletter of the International Society for Research on Emotion (ISRE). Carolyn will be working with Eric Walle, Assistant Professor in Psychological Sciences at the University of California, Merced. As well as featuring ISRE news, Emotion Researcher has developed as an online sourcebook for research on emotion and affect. Contributions so far have spanned a wide range of disciplines, including (among others) psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, political science, sociology, ethnomusicology, law and business studies.  Under the guidance of its founding editor Andrea Scarantino  each issue has included a ‘spotlight’ article, written by a new researcher alongside an interview with a well-known figure in emotion research: interviewees have included Paul Ekman, Joe Ledoux, Nico Frijda and Martha Nussbaum. In addition, each issue has included a cross-disciplinary symposium on a key issue in emotion research: topics have included specific emotions, such as love and guilt, as well as more general issues, such as the emotional brain,  emotional intelligence’ and, most recently emotion and politics. Carolyn and Eric intend to build on this excellent legacy: their first issue, planned for this summer, will focus on empathy.

Carolyn Price will be speaking at two upcoming events. The first is a conference titled Negative Emotions’ The Good the Bad and the Ugly at the Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences in Geneva on May 30^th and 31^st. Carolyn will give a talk on regret. She will be speaking again at a workshop on regret at University College Dublin on June 8^th and 9^th.