An Introduction to Expressiveness: Perception and Emotions in the Experience of Expressive Objects Book Symposium

Marta Benenti’s Expressiveness: Perception and Emotions in the Experience of Expressive Objects is of interest not only to philosophers and aestheticians but also to a broader community of thinkers concerned with the conceptual analysis of affective states and with how such states are ascribed to inanimate objects. Considering the valuable commentaries included in this book symposium, this introduction seeks to guide the reader through Benenti’s work—primarily by drawing on her own words rather than paraphrasing, so as to avoid interpretive ambiguity at this stage—and to highlight the rich ways in which Benenti’s work and the accompanying commentaries invite further exploration.