Abstract:

Research in psychology suggests that moods vary across cultures in several
different ways. This means that any adequate theory of moods has to explain
how this is possible. Moreover, the theory has to predict the right amount and
the right kind of variation. The purpose of this talk is to put forward a new
account of moods—the patterns of attention view, according to which a mood
is nothing over and above a pattern of attention. I argue that the incredible
flexibility of the view can provide an elegant explanation of the ways that
moods have been proposed to vary across cultures. Between feelings
theories which give us too little cultural variation and cognitive theories that
give us too much, the patterns of attention theory gets it just right.

Date: 5 March 2020
Time: 2pm to 4pm
Venue: Philosophy Meeting Room (AS3-05-23)

About the speaker:

Tatyana “Tanya” Kostochka is a PhD student at the
University of Southern California. Her dissertation
focuses on moods—what they are, how they relate to
the rest of our psychology, how they relate to moods in
art, and so on. She also works on ethics in medieval
Japanese Buddhist philosophy. She is currently a
visiting researcher at the Ryukoku University Research
Center for Buddhist Cultures in Asia.

All are welcome