Currently I am focusing on the nature of emotion and imagination with a view to outlining their roles in value judgement. As part of this project I am also working on buck-passing accounts of value, evaluative disagreement and relativism, the phenomenology of evaluative experience, meta-cognition, and the nature of epistemic emotions.
Aesthetics, Philosophy of Mind, Metaethics.
Publications
Monograph
- The Philosophy of Wine (London: Acumen 2010).
Edited Volumes
- Emotion and Value,co-edited with S. Roeser, Oxford University Press (2014)
- Proceedings of the European Society for Aesthetics,vol. II, 2010
Articles & Book Chapters
‘In What Sense are Aesthetic Experiences Emotional?’, Routledge Handbook of Emotion Theory ed. A. Scarantino. Forthcoming.
‘Representation and Ephemerality in Olfaction’, in T. Crowther & C. MacCuhmaill (eds.) Perceptual Ephemera (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
- ‘Flavours’ (in French) in Deonna & Tieffenbach (eds.) Dictionnaire des Valeurs, Editions d’Ithaque, Collection Science et Metaphysique. (2018)
- ‘Tasting in Time: the affective and temporal dimensions of flavour perception’. The Monist. Forthcoming.
- ‘Expressivist Semantics’ (in French), in S. Lemaire(ed.) Handbook of Metaethics. Hachette. Forthcoming.
- ‘Fitting Feeling and Elegant Proofs: on the psychology of aesthetic evaluation in mathematics.’ Philosophia Mathematica. (2017)
- ‘Relatively Fitting Emotions and Apparently Objective Values’, in S. Roeser & C. Todd (eds.) Emotion and Value (Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 90-104.
- ‘Why We Do Not Perceive Aesthetic Properties’, in A. Reboul (ed.) Mind, Value and Metaphysics: philosophical papers dedicated to Kevin Mulligan vol. 2 (Springer, 2014), pp. 105-17.
- ‘Emotion and Value’, Philosophy Compass vol. 9(2014), pp. 702-12.
- ‘Literature, Attention, and Epistemic Emotions’, in I. Vendrell Ferran & C. Demmerling (eds.) Wahrheit, Wissen und Erkenntnis in Literatur (Akademie Verlag, 2014) [in German]
- ‘Attention, Negative Valence, and Tragic Emotions’, in J. Levinson & P. Destrée (eds.) Suffering Art Gladly: The Paradox of Negative Emotions in Art (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. 224-45.
- ‘Intentionality of Emotion’, in H. Pashler (ed.) The Encyclopedia of the Mind (Sage, 2013).
- ‘Imagination, Attention, and Depiction’, Rivista di Estetica 53 (2013), pp. 89-108. [in Italian]
- ‘Attending Emotionally to Fiction’, The Journal of Value Inquiry 46 (2012), pp. 449-65.
- ‘Imagination, Expressiveness, and Expression in the Case of Wine’, in N. Zangwill & A. Hamilton (eds.) Scruton’s Aesthetics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 234-49.
- ‘Imagination, Fantasy, and Sexual Desire’, in H. Maes & J. Levinson (eds.) Art and Pornography (Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 95-115.
- ‘The Importance of the Aesthetic’, in A. Holden & D. Fennell (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Tourism and the Environment (Routledge, 2012), pp. 65-74.
- ‘Expression and Objectivity in Wine’, Rivista di Estetica 51 (2012), pp. 95-116.
- ‘Perceiving Expressiveness in Inanimate Objects’, Dialogue 51 (2012), pp. 12939. [in French].
- ‘Imaginability, Morality, and Fictional Truth: Dissolving the Puzzle of ‘Imaginative ‘Resistance’’, Philosophical Studies 143 (2009), pp. 187-211.
- ‘Nature, Beauty and Tourism’, in J. Tribe (ed.) Philosophical Issues in Tourism (Channel View, 2009), pp. 154-70.
- ‘Unmasking the Truth beneath the Beauty: why the supposed aesthetic judgements made in science may not be aesthetic at all’, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 22 (1) (2008), pp. 61-79.
- 'Aesthetic, Ethical, and Cognitive Value', South African Journal of Philosophy 26 (2) (2007), pp. 216-27.26, No. 2 (2007)
- ‘The Aesthetic Appreciation of Cricket’, Sport in Society 10 (2007), pp. 856-77.
- ‘George Dickie’, in J. Vickery & D. Costello (eds.), Art: Key Contemporary
- ‘Imagination, Attitude, and Experience’, Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics, 1 (1) (2004): 10-7.
Book Reviews (selection)
- ‘Art, Mind, and Narrative: Themes from the Work of Peter Goldie’ (Julian Dodd (ed.) Oxford University Press 2016). In Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2017).
- ‘Knowing What to Do’ (Tim Chappell, Oxford University Press, 2014). In Analysis (2017)
- ‘The Philosophy of Wine’ (Bela Hamvas, Media Kiado Press, 2016). In Hungarian Cultural Studies (2017)
- ‘On Emotions: philosophical essays’ (ed. J. Deigh, Oxford University Press, 2013). In Journal of Moral Philosophy (2016).
- ‘The Virtues of the Table: How to Eat and Think’ (J. Baggini, Granta Press, 2013). In Times Literary Supplement (2012)
- ‘Dying on the Vine: How phylloxera transformed wine’ (G. Gale, University of California Press, 2011). In Metascience 21 (2012): 759–61.
- ‘Fiction and the Weave of Life’ (J. Gibson, Oxford University Press, 2007). In Analysis 69 (2009): 594-6.
- ‘Values of Beauty: Historical Essays in Aesthetics’ (P. Guyer, Cambridge University Press, 2005). In The Philosophical Quarterly 57 (2007): 313-6.
- ‘Art and Intention: a Philosophical Study’ (P. Livingston, Clarendon Press, 2005). In The Philosophical Quarterly, 57 (2007): 153-6.
- ‘An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art’ (R. Eldridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003). In British Journal of Aesthetics 45: 192-13.
- ‘Recreative Minds: Imagination in Philosophy and Psychology’ (G. Currie and I. Ravenscroft, Oxford University Press, 2002). In British Journal of Aesthetics 43 (2003): 419-22.
- ‘The Transhistorical Image: Philosophizing Art and its History’ (P. Crowther, Cambridge University Press, 2002). In Philosophy in Review 10 (2003).
Media & Public Engagement
- ‘Do Experts Taste the Same Wine as Non-experts?’, Times Literary Supplement (November 2017)
- Leading various wine tasting courses and events on the philosophy of wine in London, Cambridge, Geneva, Brussels, Paris, and Porto Alegre (2009-present)
- Various articles and reviews for Berfois Magazine [http://www.berfrois.com] (2011-present)
- ‘Aesthetic Disagreement’, The Philosophers’ Magazine (2012)
- Interview on ABC Radio ‘Philosophers Zone’ on The Philosophy of Wine [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/stories/2011/3127689.htm] (February 2011)
- ‘Fiction, Emotion, and Imagination’, Festival of Ideas,University of Cambridge [http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/227539] (October 2010)
- ‘Taste and Objectivity’, Harrow School Lecture (October 2010)
Research Activities
From January 2011 - 2014 I was based at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland where I co-ran a 3 year research project 'Imagination, Emotion, and Value' which explored the role of imagination and emotion in judgements of value.
I am an affiliated member of the Thumos research group on Emotions and Value at the University of Geneva
I was the Treasurer and a founding member of the European Society for Aesthetics: www.eurosa.org.