What sets humans beings apart from other animals? According to Jesse Prinz, we are distinguished by the overlooked emotion of wonder. This is a seminar open only to Italian Academy Fellows.
Jesse Prinz is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is a notable expert in philosophy of psychology; he combines both philosophical and experimental methods to address enduring questions about the nature of the mind. His books include Furnishing the Mind: Concepts and Their Perceptual Basis (2002); Gut Reactions: A Perceptual Theory of the Emotions (2004); The Emotional Construction of Morals (2007); Beyond Human Nature: How Culture and Experience Shape the Human Mind (2012); The Conscious Brain: How Attention Engenders Experience (2012); and Works of Wonder: A Theory of Art (forthcoming in 2013). He is also author of more than one hundred papers.
Prinz was a visiting fellow at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, a research fellow at the School for Advanced Study at the University of London, and John J. Rogers Distinguished Professor in the department of philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, before coming to the Graduate Center in 2009. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago.
