8-10 June 2017
University of Bergen, Norway
Aesthetic Experience: Affect and Perception
Keynote Speakers
Dominic McIver Lopes, University of British Colombia
Rita Felski, University of Virginia
Angela Breitenbach, University of Cambridge
Peter Lamarque, University of York
The question of the nature and importance of aesthetic experience has
been at the core of philosophical aesthetics since its beginnings. Even
though attempts to define aesthetics have encountered much philosophical
criticism, it seems likely that any such attempt must include some sort
of story of the role of aesthetic experience and its distinguishing
features. Lately, the discussion of aesthetic experience has gained new
impetus from developments in empirical and experimental aesthetics. In
this conference, we wish to explore the full range of issues pertaining
to aesthetic experience, what may set it apart from other experiences,
what its value is, as well as its relations to art, science and the
everyday. We propose to analyse and discuss how aesthetic experience
connects with affect, percept, and concept, with art and non-art. While
we welcome contributions that discuss empirical or experimental
aesthetics, we want them to discuss the conceptual issues underlying
such research rather than to merely present empirical results.
Possible themes of the conference include, but are not limited to:
• The nature and value of aesthetic experience: What kind of features
are we responding to in aesthetic experience?
• Aesthetic experience and aesthetic categories: Has ‘the beautiful’
been displaced by other, more ambivalent aesthetic categories?
• Aesthetic experience, empirical aesthetics and “aesthetic science”: Is
the idea of such a science coherent? Can it say anything informative
about aesthetic experience?
• Aesthetic experience and its objects: are there any limitations on the
kinds of objects that can be experienced aesthetically? Can such objects
include scientific ideas, theories, or even mathematical equations?
• The role of experience in literary studies, art history, and
musicology: What is the actual role of experience in concrete acts of
interpretation and evaluation?
We welcome papers in English, from all traditions, and on any topic
related to the conference theme(s). The presentations, which will be
organised in parallel sessions, should be no longer than 20 minutes,
followed by another 10 minutes of moderated discussion.
We request abstracts of 200-300 words, sketching the main ideas and
claims of the paper, together with outlines of the arguments in favor of
them. Please submit in PDF-file format, and anonymize your submission to
allow for blind refereeing. (We do not accept full papers, and
submissions are limited to one per person.)
Use this e-mail address: nse2017@uib.no.
The deadline for the submission of the abstract is 20 February 2017. We
will make, and communicate, decisions about acceptances by 20 March 2017.
Further information about the conference will be available on our own
conference website http://www.uib.no/fof/nse2017 and on the Nordic
Society website http://nsae.au.dk/ .
If you have questions, please send them to the conference organisers:
nse2017@uib.no
On behalf of the organising committee,
Prof. Ole Martin Skilleås
Ole Martin Skilleås Telephones:+-47-5558 3277 (w)
Professor -5513 6570 (h)
Department of Philosophy -5558 9651 (fax)
University of Bergen -4163 9655 (mob)
P.b. 7805 e-mail: ole.skilleas@fof.uib.no
NO-5020 Bergen
http://www.uib.no/personer/Ole.Skilleas