Full programme and tickets will be available starting from february 15, 2027 on www.dagvandefilosofie.be. Students can get a free ticket for the full day.
Hope seems lost or out of reach for many people in our world today. There are countless reports of despair among victims of war and genocide, refugees and asylum seekers, women and girls living through sexist violence, and people struggling with substance addiction. Even people who are relatively privileged are experiencing significant social-psychological distress caused by local and global crises from economic uncertainty to climate change and the threats posed by artificial intelligence. In the face of so much suffering and injustice, despair can seem quite justified. But what is despair, and how does despair about the dire circumstances we are living in affect people’s attitudes and emotional experiences more broadly?
In this talk, Stockdale will explain how she understands the nature of despair, and how despair threatens anything we might think of as ‘cheerfulness’ or joy. Stockdale argues that we should ultimately resist despair even when the world keeps giving us reasons to experience it. But turning back to hope is not always the answer. Other attitudes, most notably love, can help people escape despair’s most significant harms even when hope for the future is not possible.
Following the lecture, Katie Stockdale will engage in a conversation with Professor of Ethics and Moral Philosophy Seppe Segers. This afternoon is a collaboration between the Dag van de Filosofie, Ghent University and Studium Generale Gent.
– Katie Stockdale is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Victoria, specializing in moral psychology, feminist philosophy, and social and political philosophy. She has published works including “Hope Under Oppression” and has previously taught at Sam Houston State University.
– Seppe Segers is a professor of ethics and moral science at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Science at Ghent University. He teaches ethics, moral science and feminist criticism, exploring the open meaning of “morality”, the relationships between description and prescription, and between moral value and non-moral value (if such a thing exists). Most of his published work deals with applied ethics.
The event will be in English and will take place in the Zwarte Zaal of KASK. The lecture will be translated into Flemish Sign Language. The Zwarte Zaal is located on the ground floor and is accessible to wheelchair users, there’s also an accessible toilet in the hallway of KASKcafé. In case you use a wheelchair, go via the entrance of KASKcinema instead of the Louis Pasteurlaan entrance. There are works in the street of KASKcinema, but it’s possible to pass by the entrance at Godshuizenlaan 4. If you have any further questions about accessibility facilities, please contact the organisation: helena.verheye@hogent.be
