CFP: Ethics of Space
Submission deadline: January 31, 2015
Topic areas
Details
Abstracts of 250-300 words are invited for an edited volume on the ethics of human activity in space.
Editors: James S.J. Schwartz (Wichita State University) and Tony Milligan (University of Hertfordshire).
Publisher subject to confirmation but the target is the Springer Space and Society series. Abstracts should be sent to [email protected]. Deadline: 31st January, 2015.
About the volume:
Since the publication of Jacques Arnould's Icarus' Second Chance: The Basis and Perspectives of Space Ethics (2011) there has been a steady improvement in the quality of work on the ethics of human activity off-world. Over the course of the next 18 months---2 years, a further three books dedicated to this subject (by Lupisella, Milligan and Munevar) are due for publication. After some false starts, a consolidated discourse is now beginning to emerge. The proposed edited volume will help to articulate key positions and clarify some of the main lines of argument. Papers on practical and theoretical perspectives are welcome and there is no proposed restriction of philosophical tradition.
Possible topics include:
Theoretical issues, e.g.: space humanism; the idea of a cosmocentric ethic; microbial value; arguments for planetary integrity; the application of environmental ethics.
Practice issues, e.g.: property rights off-world; asteroid mining; fair access to space; the ethics of risk; planetary protection; Terraforming/ecopoiesis; justifying a mission to Mars.
Invited contributors include: Jacques Arnould (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, CNES); Frans von der Dunk (Othmer Professor of Space Law, University of Nebraska); Mark Lupisella (NASA); Gonzalo Munevar (author of The Dimming of Starlight); and Charles Cockell (UK Centre for Astrobiology).