This year, I’ve started researching ecstatic experience, from a personal and an academic perspective. One of the highlights of my research has been encountering the work of Ann Taves, a religious studies academic at the University of California, Santa Barbara, … Continue reading
I’ve just re-read William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience, which he gave as a series of lectures in 1902. It is a marvelous book, in which James attempts to take a pragmatic and empirical approach to religious experiences, remaining open … Continue reading
Bernd Bösel is a philosopher and scholar with the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who has explored the idea of enthusiasm in the history of ideas, in his book Philosophie und Enthusiasmus. I met Bernd for an enthusiastic caffeine-fueled conversation to … Continue reading
This week, I traveled to Durham to visit my godmother, who has just been made principal of one of the colleges of Durham University. She invited me to high table at one of their formal black-tie dinners, and then asked … Continue reading
I’ve just been at a three-day seminar at the Institute for Government, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, to help academics learn how to influence public policy. The seminar brought together 15 academics in disciplines ranging from literary … Continue reading
Here is a new report I wrote on the rise of grassroots philosophy clubs. Open publication – Free publishing A very brief executive summary: – There are more and more grassroots philosophy clubs all over the world, including 850 philosophy … Continue reading
This is an interview I did with Professor Martha Nussbaum back in 2009, for The Stoic Registry (a web magazine for Stoics. No, really!) Professor Nussbaum, who is the Ernst Freund distinguished professor of ethics and law at the University … Continue reading
Professor William M. Reddy was one of the keynote speakers at the recent SSHM conference on “Emotions, Health and Wellbeing” at Queen Mary. He has very kindly agreed to post on the History of Emotions blog the following paragraphs, which … Continue reading
Last week, an online media outlet (that does not need to be named here) posted a link to an article and entitled it ‘Our favourite animal that thinks its human moment…’. This struck a cord with me – and not … Continue reading
Matthew J. Kisner is Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina and the author of Spinoza on Human Freedom: Reason, Autonomy and the Good Life (Cambridge University Press, 2011). Here Matthew writes for the History of Emotions blog on … Continue reading