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Regular version of the site

Vessela Misheva to speak on ' The Sociology of Moral Emotions: Shame and Guilt '

Event ended

On April 27 the online seminar of the Research Group 'Moral Emotions in Social Sciences' will be held at HSE University. Vessela Misheva will present her paper 'The Sociology of Moral Emotions: Shame and Guilt'.  

Vessela Misheva, Professor emeritus at Department of Sociology at Uppsala University, will introduce her sociological approach to moral emotions and elaborate on the substantive aspects of such moral feelings as shame and guilt. Vessela Misheva from the 2010 is a member of the Board of the European Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (EU SSSI), a member Editorial board of Symbolic Interaction journal (SSSI), and the President of the Research Committee on Alienation Theory &Research (RC36) of the International Sociological Association (ISA).

The presentation by Professor Misheva puts forward a sociological perspective concerning the evolution of moral emotions as an evolution of increased self-consciousness. The focus falls on the two most important moral feelings in the history of our civilization – shame and guilt. The main themes in the discussion include the emergence of these two feelings, the difference between them, and their various specific features in respect to their phenomenology, the triggers of the corresponding experience, the ways in which they are related to each other in social history, and the peculiarity and complementarity of their social functions.

One of the central theoretical arguments in the discussion is that the evolution of shame and guilt as moral emotions is inseparable from the evolution of the self, as the latter has been theorized in the symbolic interactionist tradition from Charles Horton Cooley to George Herbert Mead. Another point of argumentation concerns the relationship between the moral emotions and ethics in social relations and actions. This issue addresses the concerns expressed in contemporary sociology regarding the transformation of late modern society into a world without moral emotions that comprises a “shameless” world, a “guiltless world”, or both.

Subsequent to completing the main part of the presentation by Professor Misheva, there will be an open thematical discussion. The helpful literature can be found via the link here.

Start time: 7 pm
The working language of the event is English.

The link to video broadcast of the presentation in MS Teams