Prerequisites: Philosophy for Cognitive Science and additionally a background in the philosophy of emotions
Abstract: Traditionally, the study on human affectivity has distinguished mainly between emotions and moods. Recently, however, philosophers have drawn attention to another kind of affective phenomena which elude the traditional distinction. These phenomena were called existential feelings. They are now extensively researched in a variety of fields ranging from philosophy and psychology to psychiatry, aesthetics, and religious studies. Some examples of existential feelings are feeling alive or dead, embodied or out of one’s body, in tune with the world or detached from it, free, anxious, loved, estranged, depressed, and the list goes on. Due to the recency of their discovery, existential feelings still remain underconceptualised. Which phenomena fit best into the notion? What is their ontological status? Do they have intentional content? How do they relate to other dimensions, such as temporality or embodiment? (How) can they be regulated or scaffolded? When are they pathological, and when – otherwise? These and other questions still abound in the current discussion.
The course is taught together with Kirill Leshchinskii
