CFP: Vol. 12, Issue 1, 2024 [https://www.thaumazein.it/]

Henri Bergson. Creative Evolution and Philosophy of Life Submission deadlines: May 31, 2023 (Title & Abstract)
October 31, 2023 (Full Text)

Vol. 12, Issue 1, 2024 [https://www.thaumazein.it/]

Edited by Guido Cusinato, Enrica Lisciani Petrini, Donatella Pagliacci

It was not a matter of course to juxtapose the concepts of “evolution” and “creation”, as Bergson did in 1907 with the publication of L’évolution créatrice. It meant developing a philosophy of life that proposes to overcome finalism and mechanism at once. “Creation” is a crucial term clearly differentiated from “fabrication”. In Bergson’s view, life is interpreted as a “creation” that continuously “undoes” matter and reorganizes it through organisms.

Besides the complex and highly dense notion of “duration”, L’évolution créatrice contains and anticipates some topics that confirm the breadth and speculative extent of this great French philosopher, whose thought has expanded, inspired and fertilized not a few fields of philosophical and other studies from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.

From a more specific perspective, Bergson’s thesis of reality as processuality without substance offers a decidedly innovative solution to overcoming mechanism and finalism. It can help us to rethink not only the relationship between the domination of technology and human freedom but also the ecological question of the relationship between human beings and their surrounding environment. The Bergsonian question of life, for its part, continues to nourish philosophical reflection in multiple directions and offers an important starting point for re-examining the theses of biocentrism, with all the risks that this entails.

In conclusion, the debate with sciences and the speculative fertility of the proposals developed by Bergson at the epistemological level give ample room for discussion. Vladimir Jankélévitch’s definition of Bergsonism as “a monism of substance and a dualism of tendency” reopens new horizons for a critical engagement with the theses of this great French philosopher.

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Thaumàzein Online Journal of Philosophy is planning to dedicate a special issue to the dialogue between major topics of today’s philosophical-scientific reflection and the method of speculative research of Henri Bergson. Researchers and scholars are invited to contribute to this issue by first submitting a proposal on the topic related to one or more of the following lines of research:

            – Dialogue between science and philosophy of life
            – Evolutionism, mechanism, finalism
            – Duration and categories of life
            – The irreducibility of matter: a critical engagement with neurosciences
            – Biocentrism and élan vital
            – Organism and freedom

The accepted languages are Italian, English and French.

Submission deadlines:

1) Submission deadline for proposal: May 31, 2023
We recommend submitting a working title and a short abstract (max 600 characters) directly to the editors of the issue:

            Guido Cusinato ([email protected])
            Enrica Lisciani Petrini ([email protected])
            Donatella Pagliacci ([email protected])

2) Submission deadline for full text: October 31, 2023
Please submit the full text of your essay (max 42.000 characters including spaces) together with an abstract of approximately 1.500 characters and six keywords via our OJS platform:
https://rivista.thaumazein.it/index.php/thaum/about/submissions

Authors are kindly requested to adhere scrupulously to the editorial guidelines of the journal:
https://www.thaumazein.it/la-rivista/about-the-journal/formatting-guidelines/

Submissions are subject to blind peer review.

The issue is planned to be published in June 2024.