Roger W. Holmes Lecture Series: Matthew Boyle (University of Chicago)

About this event

Join the Department of Philosophy for the Roger W. Holmes Lecture Series featuring Matt Boyle from the University of Chicago.

Date: Thursday, November 5th

Time: 4:45 PM – 6:15 PM

Location: Skinner Hall 216

The Expressiveness of Human Faces

Matthew Boyle - University of Chicago

Abstract: My aim is to bring into focus the special expressiveness of human faces and what is philosophically interesting about this expressiveness. Philosophers interested in the “problem of other minds” generally ask about how it is possible for us to know about the minds of other persons by perceiving their bodies. But although philosophers tend to speak generically of perceiving bodies, I argue that it is the perception of human faces that they have foremost in mind. And although they ask generically about the possibility of knowing other minds, I argue that their most telling examples concern the perception of human emotions. I seek to show that acknowledging these two forms of specificity leads us into two territories of great interest — territories that have been better explored by psychologists, art critics, and film theorists than they have by philosophers.