[學術演講]The Puzzle of Forever Fitting Emotions (10/13)

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學      術       討      論      會      公      告

主講人：范 寧 博士

中正大學哲學系博士後研究員

主  題：The Puzzle of Forever Fitting Emotions

時  間：114年10月13日（週一）

         下午14:30-16:30

地  點：人文館345室（台北市羅斯福路四段1號）

歡迎參加討論，謝謝！

Seminar

Speaker: Dr. Ning Fan

Postdoctoral Researcher,

Department of Philosophy, Chung

Cheng University

Title: The Puzzle of Forever   Fitting Emotions

Date: 14:30 – 16:30 pm, Monday,    October 13, 2025

Venue: Room 345, Humanities Hall (No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei)

Abstract：

Facts that make emotions like regret, grief, and gratitude fitting provide reasons for those emotions. These reasons typically persist, yet we do not always experience the emotions themselves—we often cease to feel them, and this absence seems permissible. This raises the puzzle of “forever fitting emotions”: why can we permissibly fail to have emotions even when the reasons remain? I examine this puzzle and propose a solution that avoids the controversial assumptions of existing accounts. Central to my approach is distinguishing two roles that normative reasons can play: they can justify a response or, more strongly, require it. Crucially, I argue that responding to a reason—by having the emotion or performing its expressive actions—can diminish its requiring strength, explaining why one may permissibly fail to maintain an emotion even when the reason persists.