Aesthetics, Philosophy of Mind, Metaethics.

https://philpeople.org/profiles/cain-samuel-todd/

I am Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Lancaster University and currently on a period of research leave. From 2021-22 I took up a visiting position at LMU, Munich as a winner of the Humboldt Foundation's Bessel Research Prize. I then took up a Visiting Senior Research Fellowship for the autumn semester at the Centre for Philosophical Psychology, University of Antwerp. Previously I have held research positions at the Institut Jean Nicod in Paris, and the Universities of Geneva and Fribourg in Switzerland.

I am the co-editor of the journal Emotion Researcher (https://emotionresearcher.com/), a founding member of the European Society for Aesthetics (https://www.eurosa.org/) and a co-ordinator of the Culinary Mind Network (https://www.culinarymind.org/)

My research lies primarily within the areas of aesthetics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of perception. I have published papers on issues in the philosophy of fiction and literature, on the imagination, on emotion, on aesthetic judgements in science and mathematics, and on olfactory perception.  I wrote the book The Philosophy of Wine (Routledge 2010) and co-edited the volume Emotion and Value (OUP 2014). 

I am writing a book 'Aesthetics and Emotion' that will be published by Bloomsbury in 2024.

I am in the process of completing three papers:

'Affective Memory and Imagined Emotion', 'Imagination, Agency, and the Feeling of Reality', ‘The top-down and bottom-up of Aesthetic Experience’

*Please note that the list of publications and activities given in the sections below is currently incomplete. Here is a list of current and recent work:

• ‘Empathy, Imagination, and Emotion in Fictional Immersion’, Kyprianidou, Bantinaki and Vassiliou (eds.) Empathy and the Arts (Routledge: forthcoming)
• ‘Style and Authenticity in Wine’, in A. Borghini & P. Engisch The Philosophy of Recipes (Bloomsbury: forthcoming)
• ‘In What Sense are Aesthetic Experiences Emotional?’, Routledge Handbook of Emotion Theory A. Scarantino. (Forthcoming).
• ‘Imagination and Aesthetic Judgements in Scientific Thought Experiments’, Aesthetics and Science M. Ivanova and S. French (Routledge: 2020).
• ‘Expressivist Semantics’ (in French), in S. Lemaire (ed.) Handbook of Metaethics. Hachette. (2019).
• ‘Tasting in Time: the affective and temporal dimensions of flavour perception’. The Monist 10 (2018): 277-93.
• ‘Representation and Ephemerality in Olfaction’, in T. Crowther & C. MacCuhmaill (eds.) Perceptual Ephemera. Oxford University Press (2018).
• ‘Flavours’ (in French) in Deonna & Tieffenbach (eds.) Dictionnaire des Valeurs, Editions d’Ithaque, Collection Science et Metaphysique. (2018)
• ‘Fitting Feeling and Elegant Proofs: on the psychology of aesthetic evaluation in mathematics.’ Philosophia Mathematica. (2017)

Publications

Monograph

• The Philosophy of Wine (London: Routledge 2010). 
• Aesthetics and Emotion (Bloomsbury: forthcoming)

Edited Volumes

• Emotion and Value, co-edited with S. Roeser, Oxford University Press (2014)
• Proceedings of the European Society for Aesthetics, II, 2010. Co-edited with Fabian Dorsch and Alessandro Bertinetto

In progress

• ‘Imagination, Agency, and the Feeling of Reality’.
• ‘Affective Memory and Imagined Emotion’.
• ‘The top-down and bottom-up of Aesthetic Experience’

Articles & Book Chapters

• ‘Empathy, Imagination, and Emotion in Fictional Immersion’, Kyprianidou, Bantinaki and Vassiliou (eds.) Empathy and the Arts (Routledge: forthcoming)
• ‘Style and Authenticity in Wine’, in A. Borghini & P. Engisch The Philosophy of Recipes (Bloomsbury: forthcoming)
• ‘In What Sense are Aesthetic Experiences Emotional?’, Routledge Handbook of Emotion Theory A. Scarantino. (Forthcoming).
• ‘Imagination and Aesthetic Judgements in Scientific Thought Experiments’, Aesthetics and Science M. Ivanova and S. French (Routledge: 2020).
• ‘Expressivist Semantics’ (in French), in S. Lemaire (ed.) Handbook of Metaethics. Hachette. (2019).
• ‘Tasting in Time: the affective and temporal dimensions of flavour perception’. The Monist 10 (2018): 277-93.
• ‘Representation and Ephemerality in Olfaction’, in T. Crowther & C. MacCuhmaill (eds.) Perceptual Ephemera. Oxford University Press (2018).
• ‘Flavours’ (in French) in Deonna & Tieffenbach (eds.) Dictionnaire des Valeurs, Editions d’Ithaque, Collection Science et Metaphysique. (2018)
• ‘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).
• ‘Why We Do Not Perceive Aesthetic Properties’, in A. Reboul (ed.) Mind, Value and Metaphysics: philosophical papers dedicated to Kevin Mulligan, London: Springer (2014).
• ‘Emotion and Value’, Philosophy Compass (2014)
• ‘Literature, Attention, and Epistemic Emotions’ (in German), in I. Vendrell & C. Demmerling (eds.) Wahrheit, Wissen und Erkenntnis in Literatur, Akademie Verlag (2014).
• ‘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).
• ‘Intentionality of Emotion’ entry in H. Pashler (ed.) The Encyclopedia of the Mind, Sage, (2013).
• ‘Imagination, Attention, and Depiction’. (in Italian) Rivista di Estetica 53 (2013): 89-108.
• ‘Attending Emotionally to Fiction’. The Journal of Value Inquiry 46 (2012): 449-65.
• ‘Imagination, Expressiveness, and Expression in the Case of Wine’, in N. Zangwill & A. Hamilton (eds.) Scruton’s Aesthetics, Palgrave Macmillan, (2012).
• ‘Imagination, Fantasy, and Sexual Desire’, in H. Maes & J. Levinson (eds.) Art and Pornography, Oxford University Press, 2012.
• ‘The Importance of the Aesthetic’, in A. Holden & D. Fennell (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Tourism and the Environment, Routledge, (2012).
• ‘Expression and Objectivity in Wine’. Rivista di Estetica 51 (2012): 95-116.
• ‘Perceiving emotional expression in inanimate objects’ (in French). Dialogue 51 (2012): 129­39.
• ‘Imaginability, Morality, and Fictional Truth: Dissolving the Puzzle of ‘Imaginative ‘Resistance’’, Philosophical Studies 143 (2009): 187-211.
• ‘Nature, Beauty and Tourism’, in J. Tribe (ed.) Philosophical Issues in Tourism, Channel View, 2009: 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): 61-79.
• 'Aesthetic, Ethical, and Cognitive Value', South African Journal of Philosophy 26 (2) (2007): 216-27.26, No. 2 (2007
• ‘The Aesthetic Appreciation of Cricket’, Sport in Society 10 (2007): 856-77.
• ‘George Dickie’, in J. Vickery and D. Costello (eds.), Art: Key Contemporary Thinkers, Berg, 2007.
• ‘Quasi-Realism, Acquaintance, and the Normative Claims of Aesthetic Judgement’,British Journal of Aesthetics 44 (3) (2004): 277-96.
• ‘Imagination, Attitude, and Experience’, Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics, 1 (1) (2004): 10-7.

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

Winner of a Humboldt Foundation Bessel Research Prize, LMU Munich 2021-22

Recipient of a Visiting Senior Research Fellowship, Centre for Philosophical Psychology, Antwerp 2022

I am the co-editor of Emotion Researcher

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.

In 2014 I was a visiting researcher at Institut Jean Nicod in Paris.

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.