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Benjamin Matheson

@benjaminmatheson.bsky.social
148 followers 148 following 37 posts

Assistant Professor at the University of Bern and PI of a SERI-Funded ERC Starting Grant on "Collective Guilt and Shame" (CoGS). One of the hosts of The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast.

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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
My PhD Student, Sara Kok, has a new paper that's online now: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Expanding Epistemic Appropriation | Episteme | Cambridge Core
Expanding Epistemic Appropriation
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Constant Bonard @cbonard.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New paper out in *Topoi*, co-authored with Daniel Dukes and David Sander! We explore how appraisal theories of emotion can explain valence and, in particular, mixed feelings—how a single affective experience can feel good and bad at the same time. Open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Coming soon!
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Episode 11 of the Philosophy of Emotion Podcast is now live: thecogsproject.substack.com/p/episode-11...
thecogsproject.substack.com
Episode 11: Madeleine Shield on Shame as a Global Emotion
The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Episode 10 of the Philosophy of Emotion Podcast is now available! thecogsproject.substack.com/p/episode-10...
thecogsproject.substack.com
Episode 10: Andrea Scarantino on how emotions about fictional objects motivate behaviour
Ever screamed at a horror movie while knowing perfectly well that the monster isn’t real?
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Constant Bonard @cbonard.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Super glad that my paper presenting my Belief–Desire Appraisal Theory of Emotion is now published! 🥳 It defends a simple idea: #emotions are driven by #appraisals, and appraisals themselves are operations on #belief–desire pairs. Open access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Pilar Lopez-Cantero @lopezcantero.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This is finally out! I fixed multiple typos and added all the literature that came out during the unusually lengthy production process. Very apt that it comes out on the first day of EPPSE! Here’s a free link to the published version: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Episode 9 of the Philosophy of Emotion Podcast is now live: @cbonard.bsky.social interviews Christine Tappolet on the Receptive Theory of Emotions (en français) thecogsproject.substack.com/p/episode-9-...
thecogsproject.substack.com
Episode 9: Christine Tappolet on the Receptive Theory of Emotions (en français)
Christine Tappolet joins Constant Bonard to discuss her Receptive Theory of emotions, a new account that seeks to explain how emotions put us in contact with values while distinguishing them from sens...
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Alfred Archer @alfredarcher.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Here is an article @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social and I wrote about how political apologies may prematurely consigning injustice to history. psyche.co/ideas/good-a... #philsky
psyche.co
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Episode 8 of the Philosophy of Emotion Podcast is now available! I interview @cbonard.bsky.social Bonard on whether emotions can drive environmental mitigation. thecogsproject.substack.com/p/episode-8-...
thecogsproject.substack.com
Episode 8: Can Emotions Drive Environmental Mitigation? with Constant Bonard
Constant Bonard joins Benjamin Matheson to discuss the role emotions play in environmental mitigation and climate action.
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Check out this article that me and @alfredarcher.bsky.social wrote about political apologies! psyche.co/ideas/good-a...
psyche.co
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European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions @epsse.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Check our these excellent articles by Benjamin Matheson and Alba Montes Sanchez! Both use parenthood to explore very different questions: while Matheson's original three-book review dives into anxiety, guilt & pride, Montes Sanchez discusses how emotion helps knowing what we really want.
passion-journal.org
Vol. 3 No. 2 (2025): Volume 3, Issue 2 | Passion: Journal of the European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions
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Constant Bonard @cbonard.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
😡 Is anger always hostile? 🤬 🎙️ In this new episode of The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast, I'm joined by Laura Silva @proflaurasilva.bsky.social who challenges a deeply entrenched assumption about anger and shows what we miss when we treat it as purely destructive. 🎧 Listen now on all platforms
thecogsproject.substack.com
Episode 7: Is Anger Always Hostile? With Laura Silva
Laura Silva joins Constant Bonard to discuss anger, challenging the common assumption that it is essentially a hostile emotion.
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Pilar Lopez-Cantero @lopezcantero.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Just accepted: my Phil Compass article on affective injustice! It synthesizes the debate into an overarching definition ('the unjust interference w people’s affective lives, w regard to their own affective practices or through those of others') & brings out many connections between existing views/1
philpapers.org
Pilar Lopez-Cantero, Affective injustice - PhilPapers
Oppression, marginalization, and other forms of disadvantage often come with emotional burdens, such as feelings of insecurity or stress. At the same time, some features of oppression are emotional in...
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Constant Bonard @cbonard.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Do emotions drive political engagement?
 A busy pizzeria takes many orders and makes many pizzas, but its busyness doesn’t *cause* these, except via feedback effects. Likewise, I argue here, emotions correlate with new evaluations and motivations, but don’t *cause* them, except via feedback effects.
link.springer.com
Are Emotions Key to Political Engagement? The Case of Environmental Mitigation - Review of Philosophy and Psychology
Review of Philosophy and Psychology - Emotions are widely taken to play an important role in motivating political engagement. Activists and scholars often emphasize emotional responses such as...
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
New Episode of The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast! This time in French. Check out this great interview of Julien Deonna and Fabrice Teroni (Geneva) by @cbonard.bsky.social. Look out for another episode in with Deonna and Teroni in English in the future!
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Check out the latest episode of The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast! @lopezcantero.bsky.social Lopez-Cantero talks about romantic love. substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
Episode 5: Pilar Lopez-Cantero on Romantic Love
The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
A few of my thoughts about artistic wrongs and artistic redemption were included this article about the possible comeback of Fab Morvan (of Milli Vanilli) www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
latimes.com
How Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli mounted one of the greatest comebacks in Grammy history
Can Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli find redemption at the Grammys in the audiobook category, decades after the Recording Academy revoked his duo's best new artist award?
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Very pleased this 3 book review is now published: passion-journal.org/article/view...
passion-journal.org
Anxiety, Guilt, and Pride in Parenthood | Passion: Journal of the European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
iai.tv/articles/ang...
iai.tv
Anger is not a guide to truth or morality
<p><em>In moments of anger, we often feel certain that our position is right, both morally and factually. Sometimes we even imagine we are right because we are angry. But as philosophers have long not...
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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 26/11/2025
In moments of anger, we often feel certain that our position is right, both morally and factually. | iai.tv/articles/anger-is-not-a-guid… But philosopher Benjamin Matheson examines how anger can both reveal and obscure moral reality.
iai.tv
Anger is not a guide to truth or morality
<p><em>In moments of anger, we often feel certain that our position is right, both morally and factually. Sometimes we even imagine we are right because we are angry. But as philosophers have long not...
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
iai.tv/articles/ang...
iai.tv
Anger is not a guide to truth or morality
<p><em>In moments of anger, we often feel certain that our position is right, both morally and factually. Sometimes we even imagine we are right because we are angry. But as philosophers have long not...
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Leah Sottile @leahsottile.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
I missed this amazing presentation of the manosphere at the end of October, but wow this is really worth your time: www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
theguardian.com
Money, muscles and anxiety: why the manosphere clicked with young men – a visual deep dive
The manosphere is known for misogyny, but that’s not the only thing that influencers in this space offer. Young men explain the allure and the problems of the manosphere in their own words
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Pilar Lopez-Cantero @lopezcantero.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
You've probably heard of deathbots, but did you know about break-up bots? It's possible to create a digital duplicates of an ex and chat to them as if they never left in the 1st place. In my forthcoming paper in Phenom & the Cog Sciences, I discuss 3 factors against continuing bonds w ex-bots/1
philpapers.org
Pilar Lopez-Cantero, The ethics of break-up chatbots - PhilPapers
This paper offers the first normative analysis of break-up chatbots, which simulate an ex-partner's conversational style. I argue that technologies that have the (potential) aim of fostering continuin...
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
My over-analysis of children's stories continues: philosophicalparent.substack.com/p/more-on-mo...
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
philosophicalparent.substack.com/p/incy-wincy...
philosophicalparent.substack.com
Incy Wincy Spider and the Meaning of Life
Incy Wincy Spider as the positive analogue of The Myth of Sisyphus
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
New paper online now: “Consigning Injustice of History with Political Apologies” (by me and @alfredarcher.bsky.social). onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Consigning Injustice to History with Political Apologies
Failures to remember the past properly can constitute a range of different wrongs. In this article, we identify a novel kind of wrong that often occurs through political apologies: consigning an inju....
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
I am pleased to reveal what the main sources of insight and inspiration for my present and future work has been: children’s stories. Here’s one thought I had about Mog, which also features in a book I’ve been working on for a while. substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
What I Learned From: Mog The Forgetful Cat (by Judith Kerr)
Can we be praiseworthy for what we do accidentally? What does Mog teach us about the nature of moral responsibility?
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Aidan McGlynn @aidanmcglynn.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
The final issue of Hypatia for 2025, 40.4, is now up: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
A gold flyer announcing that the new issue of Hypatia is now available. The flyer has a detail from the front cover of the journal running along its centre, depicting various abstract women's faces and hair in different shades of blue.
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Alfred Archer @alfredarcher.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
@benjaminmatheson.bsky.social and I are organising a workshop and special issue of the Journal of Ethics on the Ethics of Fandom. Call for abstracts here: link.springer.com/collections/... Some great speakers already confirmed: @ajkadlac.bsky.social , Erin Tarver and Kamila Pacovská #philsky
link.springer.com
Access research journals, articles, books and more | SpringerLink
Providing access to millions of research articles and chapters from Science, Technology and Medicine, and Humanities and Social Sciences
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Una pregunta para los habladores de Español: cuando una persona dice que algo le hace ilusión, ¿cómo explicarías esto en inglés?
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Constant Bonard @cbonard.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Check out the new episode of our podcast 😃
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Episode 4 of The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast is now available! Prof. Emanuela Ceva (University of Geneva) talks with @cbonard.bsky.social about institutional dysfunctions and emotions. open.substack.com/pub/thecogsp...
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Alan Jagolinzer @jagolinzer.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
The level of grievance within a community is a key barometer for the community's vulnerability to democratic backsliding. Influencers can radicalize people in aggrieved communities as a political "force multiplier." From my testimony to EU Parliament. www.youtube.com/watch?v=j43Q...
youtube.com
Prof Jagolinzer on how democratic backsliding happens in aggrieved communities
YouTube video by Cambridge Disinformation Summit
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Episode 3 of The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast is now available! @alfredarcher.bsky.social on affective artifacts and affective injustice. thecogsproject.substack.com/publish/post...
thecogsproject.substack.com
Episode 3: Alfred Archer on Affective Artifacts and Affective Injustice
The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast
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Paula Satne @pausat25.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
The introduction to the Special Issue 'Commemorating Evildoers' is out (pre-view). I am told the whole issue will come out soon. Co-edited with Hallich for Journal of Applied Philosophy #ethics @idea-leeds.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Introduction
Click on the article title to read more.
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Episode 2 of The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast is available now! In this episode, Krista Thomason (@@kkthomason.bsky.social) talks about Shame and Negative Emotions.
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Episode 2 of The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast will be released on May 8th. The next episode features Krista Thomason talking about Shame and Negative Emotions. thecogsproject.substack.com/p/episode-2-...
thecogsproject.substack.com
Episode 2: Krista Thomason on Shame and Negative Emotions
Recorded over Zoom, Prof.
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Now available online: "Shame in Response to Institutional Failure" - co-authored with @alfredarcher.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Shame in Response to Institutional Failure
When an institution morally fails, what is the appropriate emotional reaction for those institution members who are causally uninvolved in bringing about this failure? Our aim in this article is to e...
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
The first episode of the philosophy of emotion podcast is available now! Episode 1: David Shoemaker on Amusement open.substack.com/pub/thecogsp...
open.substack.com
Episode 1: David Shoemaker on Amusement
The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Episode 1 of the Philosophy of Emotion Podcast launches this Tuesday, April 8th with David Shoemaker on Amusement open.substack.com/pub/thecogsp...
open.substack.com
Episode 1: David Shoemaker on Amusement
Recorded live and in person at the Annual Research Forum of the Geneva Centre for Affective Sciences, Prof.
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
My paper "Blameworthiness is Terminable" has been assigned to an issue of The Philosophical Quarterly. Randolph Clarke's discussion of my paper is also included in this issue.
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Franz Berto @franzberto.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
The second 2025 issue of The Philosophical Quarterly is out! academic.oup.com/pq/issue/75/2 @standrewsphil.bsky.social
Cover of The Philosophical Quarterly, 2/2025
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
I've published something else on my project's blog. This time about collective guilt: thecogsproject.substack.com/p/what-is-co...
thecogsproject.substack.com
What is Collective Guilt? And is it rational?
One aim of my current research project is to understand the nature and value of collective guilt. This kind of guilt often gets talked about with respect to historical injustices. Germans, for instanc...
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
My paper "Fame and Redemption" has now been assigned to an issue. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Fame and redemption: On the moral dangers of celebrity apologies
Click on the article title to read more.
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
The first post on my project's blog has been published. We'll soon also be launching "The Philosophy of Emotion Podcast" featuring interviews with leading and emerging figures on recent and prominent ideas in the philosophy of emotion. Check it out!
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Randolph Clarke has published a reply to my paper "Blameworthiness is Terminable". It helps develop the debate, but I still think that blameworthiness is terminable (and you should too).
academic.oup.com
Is blameworthiness terminable?
Abstract. Benjamin Matheson has recently argued that blameworthiness is terminable: in at least some cases, one's blameworthiness for a given offense can b
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Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Delighted to share my PhD student's latest work which is based on her master's thesis:
cambridge.org
The Epistemic Fata Morgana: Appropriation in the Institutional Context | Hypatia | Cambridge Core
The Epistemic Fata Morgana: Appropriation in the Institutional Context
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