CFP: Res Philosophica: Virtue and the Emotions
Submission deadline: February 1, 2015
Topic areas
Details
Res Philosophica invites papers on the topic of virtue and the emotions for the 2015 Res Philosophica Essay Prize. The author of the winning paper will receive a prize of $3,000 and publication in the associated special issue of the journal on the same topic. Submissions for the prize will be automatically considered for publication in the journal's special issue unless otherwise requested.
The claim that the emotions, either in general or individually, are intimately connected with virtue goes back to antiquity. But even then, the nature of that connection was disputed, ranging from Aristotle’s view that certain virtues dispose us to feel the right amount of emotion to the stoic views that the emotions (or, more accurately, the passions) are things that we suffer and should try to escape. As Ronald de Sousa notes, “The complexity of emotions and their role in mental life is reflected in the unsettled place they have held in the history of ethics.” This special issue of Res Philosophica seeks to explore this complexity.
Papers on individual emotions and their connection (or lack thereof) to virtue are welcome. For example, are there certain emotions (e.g., shame or disgust) that are never virtuous? Other papers might question the degree to which our emotions can be tempered by right reason in the way that much virtue theory requires, or even whether or not such tempering is possible.
Papers may also draw on recent empirical work on the emotions (as well as other disciplines like psychology and cognitive neuroscience) to question traditional understandings of the emotions or their connection to virtue.
Papers from a wide theoretical understanding of the virtues and emotions are encouraged.
Selected papers will be included in a special issue of Res Philosophica along with invited papers by Robert Roberts, Susan Stark, James Van Slyke, and Christina Van Dyke.
These are just a sample of the sorts of issue that submissions might address. Papers that address other topics in the neighborhood are welcome.
Submissions will be triple anonymously reviewed. (First, authors do not know the identity of the referees, second, referees do not know the identity of the authors, and third, editors do not know the identity of the authors.) Please format your submission so that it is suitable for anonymous review. (Instructions are available here: http://resphilosophica.org/submissions/instructions/)
Papers may be up to 12,000 words long (including footnotes).
We accept pdf and Microsoft Word documents. Papers may be submitted in any standard style, but authors of accepted papers will be required to edit their papers according to the journal’s style, which follows The Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition). Style instructions are available here: http://resphilosophica.org/resources/ResPhil-StyleSheet.pdf.
Please use the online submission form for submitting your essay, available here http://resphilosophica.org/submissions/upload/.