Research and publications

A few publications appear in more than one section.

Asterisks (*) indicate first or co-first authorship.

Affective states and other mental phenomena

• Bonard, C. (2026). ‘The Belief–Desire Appraisal Theory of Emotion’. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. [open access]

• Bonard, C.*, Dukes, D. & Sander, D. (2026). ‘Valence, Mixed Feelings, and Appraisal Processes’. Topoi. [open access]

• Bonard, C. (2026). ‘Are Emotions Key to Political Engagement? The Case of Environmental Mitigation’. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-026-00813-3 [preprint]

• Bonard, C. (2026). ‘Identity-based Irrationality and the Goal-Directed Theory of Emotions’. Emotion Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/17540739261422552 [preprint]

• Bonard, C. (2025). ‘La nature des émotions : Une recension partisane’ [‘The nature of emotions: An opiniated review’]. Les Ateliers de l’éthique/The Ethics Forum. https://doi.org/10.7202/1117228ar [open access]

• Bonard, C. (2025). ‘Emotions Represent Evaluative Properties Unconsciously’. Erkenntnis. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-024-00873-w [open access]

• Bonard, C. (2022). ‘The Rationality of Mood’. In J. Deonna, C. Tappolet and F. Teroni (eds.), A Tribute to Ronald de Sousa. [open access]

• Bonard, C.* & Vazard, J.* (2021). ‘Pas de panique ?’ [‘Don’t panic?’]. Les Ateliers de l’éthique/The Ethics Forum, 16(1), 1–14. [open access]

• Bonard, C. (2021). ‘Émotions et sensibilités aux valeurs : Quatre conceptions philosophiques contemporaines’ [‘Emotions and sensitivity to values: Four contemporary philosophical conceptions’]. Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 110(2), 209–229. [preprint]

Communication and language

• Bonard, C.* & Di Pietro, C.* (forthcoming). ‘Faire corps à distance : une enquête sur l’incarnation affective commune en milieu militant’ [Being one at a distance: An investigation into shared emotional embodiment in activist circles]. In L. Kaufmann & P.-N. Oberhauser (eds.), Les désordres de l’interaction. Georg éditeurs. [preprint]

• Bonard, C. (2023). ‘Underdeterminacy Without Ostension: A Blind Spot in the Prevailing Models of Communication’. Mind and Language, 39(2), 142–161. https://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12481 [preprint]

• Bonard, C. (2023). ‘Natural Meaning, Probabilistic Meaning, and the Interpretation of Emotional Signs’. Synthese, 201:167. [preprint]

• Bonard, C.* & Deonna, J. (2023). ‘Emotion and Language in Philosophy’. In G. L. Schiewer, J. Altarriba and B. Chin Ng (eds.), Language and Emotion: An International Handbook. De Gruyter, Berlin. [preprint]

• Bonard, C. (2022). ‘Beyond Ostension: Introducing the Expressive Principle of Relevance’. Journal of Pragmatics, 187, 13–23. [preprint]

• Wharton, T.*, Bonard, C., Dukes, D., Sander, D. & Oswald, S. (2021). ‘Relevance and Emotion’. Journal of Pragmatics, 181, 259–269. [open access]

• Bonard, C.* & Neeser, B.* (2019). ‘Les incantatifs : actes de langage, évaluations collectives et groupes sociaux’ [‘The incantatives: Speech acts, collective evaluations, and social groups’]. Implications Philosophiques, 100. [open access]

Artificial intelligence

• Bonard, C. (forthcoming). ‘Can AI Create Music? A Musical Act Theory’. In L. Giombini, E. Guter, E. S. Mikalonytė & N. García-Carril Puy (eds.), AI in Music: Philosophical and Cultural Perspectives. Springer. [preprint]

• Bonard, C. (2024). ‘Can AI and Humans Genuinely Communicate?’. In A. Strasser (ed.), Anna's AI Anthology: How to Live with Smart Machines? Xenomoi, Berlin. [preprint]

• Bonard, C.* & Cortal, G.* (2024). ‘Improving Language Models for Emotion Analysis: Insights from Cognitive Science’. In T. Kuribayashi, G. Rambelli, E. Takmaz, P. Wicke and Y. Oseki (eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics. Association for Computational Linguistics, Bangkok, 264–277. [open access]

  • Une version française est également disponible, publiée dans les Actes de JEP-TALN-RECITAL 2024 [accès libre].

Music, art, and aesthetic-related phenomena

• Bonard, C. (forthcoming). ‘Can AI Create Music? A Musical Act Theory’. In L. Giombini, E. Guter, E. S. Mikalonytė & N. García-Carril Puy (eds.), AI in Music: Philosophical and Cultural Perspectives. Springer.

• Dubourg, E.*, Thouzeau, V.*, Beuchot, T., Bonard, C., 28 other authors, and Baumard, N. (2026). ‘Carving Stories at their Natural Joints’. Psychological Review. [preprint]

• Bonard, C. (2026). ‘Émotions musicales et le paradoxe de l’abstrait émotionnel’ [Musical emotions and the paradox of emotional abstractness]. In S. Lépine & S. Lemaire (eds.), La variété des émotions. Elliot éditions. [preprint]

• Bonard, C.* & Humbert-Droz, S.* (2024). ‘The Definition of Art’. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/definition-of-art/

• Bonard, C.*, Cova, F.* & Humbert-Droz, S.* (2022). ‘De Gustibus est Disputandum: An Empirical Investigation of the Folk Concept of Aesthetic Taste’. In J. Wyatt, J. Zakkou & D. Zeman (eds.), Perspectives on Taste. Routledge, London. [preprint]

• Bonard, C.* & Humbert-Droz, S.* (2020). ‘Art’. In M. Kristanek (ed.), Encyclopédie Philosophique. http://encyclo-philo.fr/

• Bonard, C. (2019). ‘Lost in musical translation: A cross-cultural study of musical grammar and its relation to affective expression in two musical idioms between Chennai and Geneva'. In F. Cova & S. Réhault (eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Aesthetics. Bloomsbury Academic, London. [preprint]

• Bonard, C.* & Levinson, J. (2018). ‘La Créativité’ [‘Creativity’]. In E. Tieffenbach & J. Deonna (eds.), Dictionnaire des Valeurs. Éditions d’Ithaque, Paris. [preprint]

Social and societal phenomena

• Bonard, C.* & Di Pietro, C.* (forthcoming). ‘Faire corps à distance : une enquête sur l’incarnation affective commune en milieu militant’ [Being one at a distance: An investigation into shared emotional embodiment in activist circles]. In L. Kaufmann & P.-N. Oberhauser (eds.), Les désordres de l’interaction. Georg éditeurs. [preprint]

• Bonard, C. (2026). ‘Are Emotions Key to Political Engagement? The Case of Environmental Mitigation’. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-026-00813-3 [preprint]

• Bonard, C.*, Contesi, P.* & Marques, T.* (2024). ‘The Defectiveness of Propaganda’. The Philosophical Quarterly, 74(4), 1080–1102. https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqae048 [preprint]

• Bonard, C.* & Neeser, B.* (2019). ‘Les incantatifs : actes de langage, évaluations collectives et groupes sociaux’ [‘The incantatives: Speech acts, collective evaluations, and social groups’]. Implications Philosophiques, 100. [open access]

Asterisks (*) indicate first or co-first authorship.

Forthcoming

27. Bonard, C. 'Can AI create music? A musical act theory'. in AI in music: Philosophical and cultural perspectives, ed. by L. Giombini, E. Guter, E. S. Mikalonytė, & N. García-Carril Puy, Springer. [preprint]

26. Bonard, C.* & Di Pietro, C.* 'Faire corps à distance : une enquête sur l’incarnation affective commune en milieu militant' [Being one at a distance: an investigation into shared emotional embodiment in activist circles], in Les désordres de l’interaction, ed. by Kaufmann, L. & Oberhauser, P.-N., Georg éditeurs. [preprint]

2026

25. Bonard, C.*, Dukes, D. & Sander, D. 'Valence, Mixed Feelings, and Appraisal Processes'. Topoi. [open access]

24. Dubourg, E.*, Thouzeau, V.*, Beuchot, T., Bonard, C., 28 other authors, and Baumard, N. 'Carving Stories at their Natural Joints’, Psychological Review [preprint].

23. Bonard, C. 'The Belief–Desire Appraisal Theory of Emotion', Pacific Philosophical Quaterly. [open access]

22. Bonard, C. 'Émotions musicales et le paradoxe de l’abstrait émotionnel' [Musical emotions and the paradox of emotional abstractness], in La variété des émotions, ed. by S. Lepine & S. Lemaire, Elliot éditions. [preprint]

21. Bonard, C. 'Are Emotions Key to Political Engagement? The Case of Environmental Mitigation', Review of Philosophy and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-026-00813-3 [preprint]

20. Bonard, C. ‘Identity-based Irrationality and the Goal-Directed Theory of Emotions’, Emotion Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/17540739261422552 [preprint]

2025

19. Bonard, C. ‘La nature des émotions : Une recension partisane’ [‘The nature of emotions: An opiniated review’], Les Ateliers de l’éthique/The Ethics forum. https://doi.org/10.7202/1117228ar [open access]

18. Bonard, C. ‘Emotions Represent Evaluative Properties Unconsciously’, Erkenntnis. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-024-00873-w  [open access]

2024

17. Bonard, C.* & Humbert-Droz, S.* ‘The Definition of Art’, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/definition-of-art/ 

16. Bonard, C.*, and Cortal, G.* ‘Improving Language Models for Emotion Analysis: Insights from Cognitive Science.’ In Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics, ed. by T. Kuribayashi, G. Rambelli, E. Takmaz, P. Wicke, and Y. Oseki, Association for Computational Linguistics, Bangkok, 264–77. [open access]

Une version française est également disponible, publiée dans les Actes de JEP-TALN-RECITAL 2024 [accès libre].

15. Bonard, C.*, Contesi, P.*, and Marques, T*. ‘The Defectiveness of Propaganda’, The Philosophical Quarterly, 74(4), p. 1080-1102. DOI: 10.1093/pq/pqae048. [preprint]

14. Bonard, C. ‘Can AI and Humans Genuinely Communicate?’, in Anna Strasser (ed.), Anna's AI Anthology. How to live with smart machines?, Xenemoi, Berlin. [preprint]

2023

13. Bonard, C. ‘Underdeterminacy Without Ostension: A Blind Spot in the Prevailing Models of Communication’, Mind and Language, 39(2), 142–161, DOI: 10.1111/mila.12481. [preprint]

12. Bonard, C. ‘Natural Meaning, Probabilistic Meaning, and the Interpretation of Emotional Signs’, Synthese, 201:167. [preprint]

11. Bonard, C.* & Deonna, J. ‘Emotion and Language in Philosophy’, in G. L. Schiewer, J. Altarriba and B. Chin Ng, (eds), Language and emotion. An International handbook, De Gruyter, Berlin. [preprint]

2022

10. Bonard, C. ‘The Rationality of Mood’, in J. Deonna, C. Tappolet and F. Teroni (eds.), A Tribute to Ronald de Sousa. URL https://www.unige.ch/cisa/related-sites/ronald-de-sousa/ [open access] 

9. Bonard, C. ‘Beyond Ostension: Introducing the Expressive Principle of Relevance’, Journal of Pragmatics, 187, 13-23. [preprint]

8. Bonard, C.*, Cova, F.*, & Humbert-Droz, S.* ‘De Gustibus est Disputandum: An Empirical Investigation of the Folk Concept of Aesthetic Taste’, in J. Wyatt, J. Zakkou & D. Zeman (eds.), Perspectives on taste, Routledge, London. [preprint]

2021

7. Wharton, T.*, Bonard, C., Dukes, D., Sander, D., & Oswald, S. ‘Relevance and Emotion’, Journal of Pragmatics, 181, 259-269. [open access]

6. Bonard, C. ‘Émotions et sensibilités aux valeurs : Quatre conceptions philosophiques contemporaines’ [‘Emotions and sensitivity to values : Four contemporary philosophical conceptions’], Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 110(2), 209-229. [preprint]

5. Bonard, C.* & Vazard, J.* ‘Pas de panique ?’ [‘Don’t panic?’], Les Ateliers de L'Ethique / The Ethics Forum, 16(1), 1-14. [open access]

2020

4. Bonard, C.* & Humbert-Droz, S.* ‘Art’, in M. Kristanek, Encyclopédie Philosophique, URL http://encyclo-philo.fr/.

2019

3. Bonard, C. ‘Lost in musical translation: A cross-cultural study of musical grammar and its relation to affective expression in two musical idioms between Chennai and Geneva', in F. Cova and S. Réhault (eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Aesthetics, Bloomsbury Academic, London. [preprint]

2. Bonard, C.* & Neeser, B.* ‘Les incantatifs : actes de langage, évaluations collectives et groupes sociaux’ [‘The incantatives: Speech acts, collective evaluations, and social groups’], in Implications Philosophiques, 100. [open access]

2018

1. Bonard, C.* & Levinson, J. ‘La Créativité’ [‘Creativity’], in E. Tieffenbach and J. Deonna (eds.), Dictionnaire des Valeurs, Editions d’Ithaque, Paris. [preprint]

13. Bonard, C. (2026). "La musique à l’ère de l’IA : Y a-t-il des raisons d’être optimiste ?", in WAF-WAF, Substack blog post [link]

12. Bonard, C. (2025). “Reasoning as Mental Actions”, in A Causerie on Reasoning, AI-Phi, blog post [link]. 

11. Bonard, C., Contesi, F., Marques, T. (2025). “What Is This Thing Called Propaganda?” Open Philosophy, blog post [link].

10. Bonard, C. (2019). ‘Humeur et émotions’, Questions–Réponses RTS découvertes, blog post, [link].

9. Bonard, C. & Humbert-Droz, S. (2019). ‘Les actes désintéréssés existent-ils?’, Questions–Réponses RTS découvertes, blog post [link].

8. Bonard, C. (2017). ‘Can fear be enjoyable?’ 'Comment peut-on aimer avoir peur?', in Emotions, ed. by D. Sander and N. Hershdorfer, Benteli Publishing, Zürich. [preprint]

7. Bonard, C. (2017). ‘L'invisible nature de l'art visuel. La théorie des qualités quaternaires appliquées aux acquarelles de Michael Rampa’, in Strappato, Micronaut Editions, Vevey. [preprint]

6. Sarzano, M., Van Loon, M., Bonard, C., & Neeser, B. (2016). ‘Les vices épistémiques de Sam : un homme de ressentiment, suffisant, bête et complaisant’, in a Festschrift dedicated to Kevin Mulligan, iphilo. [published version]

5. Bonard, C. & Neeser, B. (2016). ‘Perdre sa vie à la gagner : Une analyse conceptuelle, normative et généalogique des apparences et de la nature des perdants’, in Acte du Loøseloque: Boloss, Perdants, Rejetés. Ed. by Association Cooloque, Cooloque Editions, Lausanne. [preprint]

4. Bonard, C. & Neeser, B. (2014). ‘L'art de ne rien faire: les normes du chill’, in De la Skholè au Chill: repenser le temps libre, Actes du Colloque. Ed. by Association Cooloque, Cooloque Editions, Lausanne. [preprint]

3. Bonard, C. (2013). ‘Le kitsch du snob: quand être dégouté par le kitsch est-il inapproprié?’, in iphilo, 5. [published version]

2. Bonard, C. & Neeser, B. (2012). ‘C’est quoi un hipster? Essai d’ontologie sociale’, in C’est cool un livre? Actes du colloque: Instances et propriétés d'être cool. Ed. by Association Cooloque, Cooloque Editions, Lausanne. [published version]

1. Bonard, C. & Neeser, B. (2011). ‘Ebauche d’une théorie du cool’, in iphilo, 4. [published version]

These manuscripts are available on demand: don't hesitate to contact me.

Submitted

6. Bonard, C. [about unintentionally suggesting something while having control over its effects]

5. Bonard, C. [about unintentionally sending harmful messages]

4. Bonard, C. and Matheson, B. [about the nature of emotion-based evaluative properties like being shameful, disgusting, or amusing]

3. Bonard, C. [about whether AI models can communicate emotionally with us]

2. Bonard, C. & Diaz, R. [about what and how slurs communicate]

1. Bonard, C. [about affective speech acts and their influence on the formation and maintenance of social groups].

First drafts

3. First draft Bonard, C. [about musical meaning and how theories of meaning in semantics and pragmatics can account for it].

2. First draft Bonard, C. [about the meaning of slurs given insights from the affective sciences]

1. First draft Bonard, C. [about what it takes to understand the meaning of expressive speech acts].