Conference topic Contemporary democratic subjects are participants in ocularcentric societies that privilege vision \;and are characterized by the ubiquitous availability of images\, driven by technological and \;cultural changes on a global scale. \;Contemporary citizens\, then\, are viewing subjects\; they use \;languages and technical objects that are imbued with metaphors and practices of seeing and \;visibility. But what does it mean to be a viewing subject in a democratic \;society\, and what does it \;mean to be visible to others? What are the aesthetic\, social and political presuppositions and \;implications of seeing and visibility in today&rsquo\;s democracies?
Our vision\, our ability to see\, is\, as Marx noted\, a disposition that is a product of our historical \;circumstances. The production and presentation of images and our corresponding habits of \;seeing are culturally\, economically\, \;politically\, and aesthetically mediated and can never achieve \;anything like total visibility: our ability to see is always aspectual (Wittgenstein) and partitioned \;(Rancière) and therefore prone to blind spots and aspect- or soul-blindness (Cavell) to other \;people and the nonhuman world. This is what the unnamed narrator in Ralph Ellison&rsquo\;s novel \;The \;Invisible Man \;speaks of when he speaks of his own social invisibility as an effect of the blindness \;of \;the &ldquo\;inner eyes&rdquo\; of those with whom he comes into contact\, those eyes with which they view \;reality through their physical eyes. If one follows this metaphor of the inner eye\, then making a \;person or the non-human world \;socially and politically visible does not consist in perceiving \;them more acutely or observing them more closely\, but depends fundamentally on people&rsquo\;s \;individual and collective aesthetic-moral disposition &ndash\; their \;inner eye \;&ndash\; \;which guides their ways of \;seeing.
This metaphor of the inner eye suggests that questions of social and political participation and \;belonging &ndash\; questions of social justice and democratic participation &ndash\; are not adequately \;addressed when theorized in terms of \;distribution of resources\, rights\, or opportunities\, or in \;terms of epistemic\, moral\, and legal recognition and representation alone\, but that they must also
be theorized in terms of (in)visibility and its aesthetic\, social\, and political conditions. But what \;does it mean for a critical political philosophy to think about questions of social justice and \;democratic participation in terms of \;visibility and invisibility?
In recent years\, there has been a growing interest in such questions in practical philosophy and \;political theory. The aim of this conference is to present new work on such questions\, by \;bringing together political and social \;philosophers\, political theorists and scholars from cultural \;studies pursuing diverse approaches to such questions. The conference includes contributions on \;questions and topics including:
Submission Proposals must contain an abstract of 300&ndash\;500 words (including footnotes and appendices but excluding references) prepared for blind peer-review and\, in a separate file\, a brief CV of 100&ndash\;200 words. \;Co-authored abstracts are admissible for submission. \;We particularly encourage proposals that foster gender&ndash\;equality and diversity\, from researchers at diverse stages of their professional careers\, with different geographical origins\, and from underrepresented groups.
Please email proposals to \;michael.raeber@philos.uzh.ch \;by \;March 13\, 2022. \; Decisions will be communicated by March 31\, 2022.
Accepted contributors will be allotted 45 minutes for presentation plus 15 minutes for Q&\;A. \;Currently\, we plan for this event to be held in person\, but if circumstances dictate\, it may be held \;partially (hybrid) or fully online.
Funding Support for travel and accommodation may be available for contributors without \;institutional funding. Please contact the organizer about travel support once your abstract has \;been accepted.
Organization This event is hosted by the Center for Ethics (University of Zurich) and \;organized by Michael Räber (Zurich). It is funded by a Scientific Exchanges Grant of the Swiss \;National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Contact Please direct any queries to: \;michael.raeber@philos.uzh.ch
Important dates Deadline for abstract submission: \;March \;13\, 2022 Deadline for notification of acceptance: \;March \;31\, 2022
Conference: \;June 30 &ndash\; July 2 2022