Philosophy Department Visiting Speaker Series Fall 2024 with Prof. Karin Brown

Our last speaker in this series is Prof. Karin Brown from the San Jose State University. Her talk is "The Nikāyas and Aristotle on Moral Psychology: Emotions And Moral Responsibility." Please see the attached poster for more details. 

The talk will be Friday, December 6th, from 12-1:30 pm. It will be HYBRID, so you can join in person in CL 111, or online on Zoom (link on the poster). 

Finally, please continue to save every first Friday of the month in Spring 2025, from 12-1:30pm, for our speaker series.

Abstract: 

This paper undertakes a comparison of the Nikāyas (early Buddhist Texts) and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics on the question of moral responsibility for emotions. Aristotle's definition of virtue as a mean between two extremes includes emotions (such as anger, hatred, or love). Aristotle attributes responsibility when there is a choice. On the one hand, emotions are subject to excess and deficiency through habituation. On the other hand, Aristotle claims that emotions are voluntary but not chosen. Yet, he expects us to feel the right emotion to enable virtue (one can be too angry or not angry enough). Buddhist philosophy includes a detailed analysis and taxonomy of emotions as moral motivation. The concept of choice is implied by the guidelines for effecting emotions. Applying Aristotle's conceptual framework to the analysis of emotions in the Nikāyas results in a clearer account of moral responsibility and a normative theory of emotions.