It is often thought that emotions cloud our judgments and that assessing the true value of something requires cold and dispassionate reflection. However, in opposition to this pessimistic conception of the relationship between judgments of value and emotions, a long-standing tradition has stressed the importance of emotions in such judgments, making affective reactions our privileged way of accessing values. According to this tradition, emotions are not only caused by judgments of value, but can also be the source of these judgments.

This summer school proposes to approach the question of the relationship between emotions and values by focusing on the role emotions play in our moral lives. Questions that will be addressed include the interaction between emotions and moral judgments (do emotions play a role a role in the formation of our moral evaluations? and should this role be viewed as a mere external bias or can it be considered to be the normal way, or even a reasonable way, of reaching a moral verdict?) and the role of emotions in moral development (are there emotional reactions that are necessary for the full development of our moral abilities? does moral development also include emotional development?). The school will also focus on the different moral functions of particular emotions, such as contempt, disgust, elevation or indignation, and the way the field of moral emotions has been carved throughout history, and by various cultures and languages.

This summer school proposes to bring together and integrate the multiple and complementary ways of investigating the relations between values, morality and the emotions by presenting fundamental theories, major research paradigms, cutting-edge methodologies and significant results from different disciplines.

In addition, hands-on workshops will be conducted on research methodologies in the study of morality from the vantage point of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics and the history of emotions. Students will be given the opportunity to put their freshly acquired knowledge to use by working daily in small groups, a process that will result in the production and presentation of an interdisciplinary research project.

Confirmed plenary speakers include :

• David Amodio (New York University)
• Antoine Compagnon (Collège de France)
• Fiery Cushman (Brown University)
• Ronald de Sousa  (University of Toronto)
• Johnny Fontaine (University of Ghent)
• David Konstan (New York University)
• Kristján Kristjánsson (University of Birmingham)
• Tina Malti (University of Toronto)
• Shaun Nichols (University of Arizona)
• David A. Pizarro (Cornell University)
• Simone Schnall (University of Cambridge)
• Jan E. Stets (University of California Riverside)
• Christine Tappolet (Montreal University)

30.01.2013

Friday, July 5

Saturday, July 6

Sunday, July 7

Monday, July 8

Tuesday, July 9 

 

Wednesday, July 10

Thursday, July 11

Friday, July 12

• David Amodio (New York University)
• Antoine Compagnon (Collège de France)
• Fiery Cushman (Brown University)
• Ronald de Sousa  (University of Toronto)
• Johnny Fontaine (University of Ghent)
• David Konstan (New York University)
• Kristján Kristjánsson (University of Birmingham)
• Tina Malti (University of Toronto)
• Shaun Nichols (University of Arizona)
• David A. Pizarro (Cornell University)
• Simone Schnall (University of Cambridge)
• Jan E. Stets (University of California Riverside)
• Christine Tappolet (Montreal University)

- Important dates
- Fees
- Venue
- Transportation
- Scientific committee
- Organizing committee

Important dates

Application deadline: March 24, 2013
Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2013
Registration deadline: June 15, 2013
Conference: July 5-13, 2013

Fees

Convertion rates can be found here.

Venue
Château de Bossey (The Ecumenical Institute)
Chemin Chenevière 2
CH 1279 Bogis-Bossey
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 960 7300 - Fax: +41 22 960 7367
Website
Map

Transportation

The Château de Bossey is located in Bogis-Bossey, 20 km away from Geneva.

Geneva is easily accessible by plane and train:
Geneva airport: www.gva.ch
Swiss railway system: http://www.sbb.ch/

From the Geneva airport you can take a train directly into the Geneva railway station (Cornavin), where you can take a regional train to Nyon or Coppet.

From there take the local bus (line 811) to the stop "Céligny, village" (the bus runs every half an hour from the Nyon train station to the Coppet train station, and back. "Céligny, village" is the stop halfway between the two stations). The chateau is 20 minutes away on foot from "Céligny, village". Just turn left at the bus stop, towards the townhall ("mairie" - look for the flags). At the "mairie" take a sharp right into Route de Coudres. Go straight on for a while, past the "Auberge de Céligny" and past the "Service du Feu", and when you arrive at the first major intersection simply turn left following directions towards the "Institut oecuménique".

For more details on the bus schedule, please visit http://www.tpg.ch/fr/index.php (arrêt de départ/departure: "Coppet, gare" or "Nyon, gare"; arrêt d'arrivée/ arrival "Céligny, village").

For more details on how to make it to Bossey, please visit
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/activities/bossey/se-reunir-a-bossey/visiter-bossey.html

Scientific committee

Tobias Brosch
Fabrice Clément
Florian Cova
Julien Deonna
Ernst Fehr
Didier Grandjean
Patrizia Lombardo
David Sander
Cristina Soriano
Patrik Vuilleumier
 

Organizing committee
Florian Cova
Julien Deonna
Irene Rotondi
Cristina Soriano
Marion Gumy
Daniela Sauge
 

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To apply at ISSAS 2013, click here.

Application deadline: March 24, 2013

At the end of the application questionnaire, you will be asked to upload via a secured file browser dialog box, a zip file with your Curriculum Vitae, a letter of motivation including your specific interest for ISSAS, a letter of recommendation from your advisor and a copy of your identification card or passport (pdf only).
Please make sure that these documents are ready on your desktop before you start the registration process; we will consider only complete applications.

The selection of participants will be finished by April 15,2013. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by e-mail.

This summer school is designed for 40-50 participants. In order to make this course as enriching as possible for the participants and the faculty, the Scientific Committee will ensure a wide variety of scientific backgrounds by selecting people from different laboratories, disciplines and levels of advancement in their scientific careers - from advanced PhD students to senior postdoctoral fellows.