Rethinking Consent as Affective Approval
Conférence par/Conference by Emanuela Carta (Uni Graz and KU Leuven)
Quand/When : 13 février/ february 13 2026 @ 10:00 – 12:00
Où/Where : Salle/Room: 422, Département de philosophie de l’Université de Montréal, 2910 boul. Édouard-Montpetit
*La conférence sera aussi présentée sur Zoom. /The conference will also be presented on Zoom.
ID de réunion: 266 439 5811
Code secret: 454185
Résumé/Abstract : Recent debates in feminist philosophy have expressed growing dissatisfaction with the dominant understanding of consent as a form of permission. While some have responded by supplementing consent with additional normative criteria for ethical intimate encounters, others have explored the possibility of reconceptualizing consent.
In this talk, I pursue this latter strategy by developing an account of consent as affective approval: a sui generis emotion experienced upon recognizing something as right. On this view, consent is not primarily a speech act or a decision, but a form of emotive endorsement, which should not be confused with enthusiasm or desire.
I then explore the relationship between affective approval, agency, and autonomy, suggesting that the proposed affective account of consent may help secure the possibility of consent under conditions of partial autonomy.