Social and Behavioral Sciences Interest Group
Time: Online every other week. Please contact Marshall Peterson ([email protected]) for information.
The Social and Behavioral Sciences Interest Group (SoBIG) reads and discusses works of mutual interest in the philosophy of the social sciences, and in moral and prudential psychology in philosophy or the social sciences. We select readings for a variety of reasons: to keep up on the most exciting developments in the field, to help participants examine literature relevant to their research projects, to provide feedback on works in progress being written by SoBIG participants, to revisit classic articles in the literature, and sometimes just to have fun discussing a topic related to the social sciences. For information, please contact Valerie Tiberius ([email protected]) or Marshall Peterson ([email protected]).
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Spring 2025
January 24: Hardcastle, Valerie Gray. “When a Pain Is Not.” The Journal of Philosophy 94, no. 8 (1997): 381–409. doi:10.2307/2564606. PDF.
February 7: Bain, David. “Why Take Painkillers?” Noûs (Bloomington, Indiana) 53, no. 2 (2019): 462–90. doi:10.1111/nous.12228. PDF.
February 21: Aydede, Murat. “Is Feeling Pain the Perception of Something?” The Journal of Philosophy 106, no. 10 (2009): 531–67. doi:10.5840/jphil20091061033. PDF.
March 7: Corns, Jennifer. “Suffering as Significantly Disrupted Agency.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 105, no. 3 (2022): 706–29. doi:10.1111/phpr.12841. PDF.
March 21: Bradford, Gwen. "Perfectionist Bads." The Philosophical Quarterly 71, no. 3 (2021): 586-604. PDF.
Our meetings are informal and some participants need to arrive late or leave early because of scheduling conflicts. All faculty from the University of Minnesota and area colleges and universities and graduate students are welcome to attend whenever they would like (without invitation) and without giving advanced notice. Undergraduates are included by invitation. (If you know of an undergraduate who is well-suited and possibly interested, please contact Valerie Tiberius ([email protected]) or Marshall Peterson ([email protected]) so an invitation can be extended.)
Fall 2024
September 18: Dennett, Daniel C. Why You Can’t Make a Computer That Feels Pain. Synthese (Dordrecht) 38, no. 3 (1978): 415–56. doi:10.1007/BF00486638.
October 2: Melzack, Ronald, and Patrick D Wall. Pain Mechanisms: A New Theory. Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 150, no. 3699 (1965): 971–79. doi:10.1126/science.150.3699.971.
October 16: Schroeder, Timothy. Pleasure and Displeasure. In Three Faces of Desire, 71-106. Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2004.
Timothy Schroeder will be attending.
October 30: Berridge, Kent C. Pleasure, Pain, Desire, and Dread: Hidden Core Processes of Emotion. In Well-Being: Foundations of Hedonic Psychology, edited by Daniel Kahneman, Ed Diener, and Norbert Schwarz, 525–57. Russell Sage Foundation, 1999. (link to paper)
November 13: Klein, Colin. What Pain Asymbolia Really Shows. Mind 124, no. 494 (2015): 493–516. doi:10.1093/mind/fzu185.
December 4: Heathwood, Chris. The Reduction of Sensory Pleasure to Desire. Philosophical Studies 133, no. 1 (2007): 23–44. doi:10.1007/s11098-006-9004-9.