An International Interdisciplinary Conference

California State University
Fullerton

June 22-23, 2006

Sponsored By:

CSU Fullerton

The American Society for Aesthetics

The British Society of Aesthetics

overview:

The goal of this international interdisciplinary conference is to provide a forum for interdisciplinary scholarly collaboration addressing the following questions regarding empathy: 1) what kind of process is empathy?, 2) how does empathy differ from related psychological processes?, 3) what role does empathy play in our engagement with fiction? 4) how do we determine whether or not attempts to empathize are successful?, and 5) what role does empathy play in social and moral life?

There is a need for such a conference, not only to try to clear up confusion amongst philosophers and psychologists as to what exactly empathy is, but also because achieving a greater understanding of what empathy is has important implications for other areas of philosophy, and especially for aesthetics and ethics.  

featured speakers:

Heather Battaly
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Cal State Fullerton

**Noel Carroll
Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Temple University

Amy Coplan (co-host)
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Cal State Fullerton

Gregory Currie
Head of the Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham

Stephen Davies
Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Auckland

Peter Goldie (co-host)
Samuel Hall Chair of Philosophy, University of Manchester

**Paul L. Harris
Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Martin L. Hoffman
Professor of Psychology, New York University

E. Ann Kaplan
Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies & Director, The Humanities Institute at Stony Brook

Derek Matravers
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Open University

Jesse Prinz
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Murray Smith
Professor of Film Studies, University of Kent

**Kendall Walton
Charles L. Stevenson Collegiate Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan

* *= Keynote Speakers

We are grateful to the following sponsors for their generous support of this conference:

California State University Fullerton
including the Department of Philosophy, the Dean of Humanities & Social Sciences, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Department of Psychology, the Honors Program, the Department of Radio, T.V. & Film, and the Women's Studies Program.

The American Society for Aesthetics

The British Society of Aesthetics