CFP: What is World Philosophy?

We are looking for chapters for an edited volume titled What is World Philosophy? We want chapters on regional philosophies like ‘Western Philosophy’, ‘Middle-Eastern Philosophy’, ‘East-Asian Philosophy’ and so on, as well as chapters on national philosophies. Whilst contributions on much-discussed philosophical traditions like ‘French Philosophy’ or ‘British Philosophy’ will be important aspects of the book, seeing as this is a book on world philosophies, we especially encourage chapters on under-represented philosophies which might have few publications – especially for non-specialists, introducing readers to the world philosophy in question – and, for example, might not have or have only just received an entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

If you don’t write a chapter representing the world philosophy you study, it might not get represented in this book!

The ability of this edited volume to seriously represent world philosophy depends on its contributors. We urge scholars at all stages of their careers to consider authoring a chapter for the book. Especially when it comes to very under-represented philosophies, it might be the case that, if you don’t submit a chapter, nobody else will. This is, unfortunately, the nature of under-represented philosophies. This edited volume is trying to change that, but this is a long-term project with which we need your help.

We are soliciting chapters on any national or regional philosophy, and we leave it to authors to determine what they define as a national or regional philosophy. As a broad outline, we would like sections (or independent volumes, depending on the number of chapters received) on (1) Western Philosophy, (2) African Philosophy, (3) East-Asian Philosophy, (4) Middle-Eastern Philosophy, (5) South American Philosophy, (6) Central American Philosophy and possibly (7) Native or Indigenous Philosophy if we see from chapters submitted to us good reasons for separating it into a separate global section apart from those divided geographically.

What we are looking for are chapters that deal fully with two issues. The first is the problematics associated with defining a regional or national philosophy. Chapters should provide a description, explanation and critical analysis of the debates around the application of the term ‘philosophy’ to that region’s intellectual history. By way of example, some of the problematics associated with ‘Japanese philosophy’ are (1) the fact that Buddhism, Confucianism and academic philosophy were all imported into Japan, (2) that philosophy (philosophia) might be considered a Western phenomenon – a view that might be compounded by the fact that the Japanese had no word for philosophy until the late nineteenth century – (3) that their intellectual history is religious, and therefore not philosophical, and so on.

The second topic chapters are expected to discuss is a general characterization of the regional philosophy in question. Characterizations are expected to be broad principles wherever possible. They do not need to be applicable to the history of the regional philosophy from start to end; different characterizations may be made for different historical phases, but it is hoped that there will be some consistent features. By way of example again, there are a number of characterizations of what makes Japanese philosophy Japanese, some by contemporary scholars (‘engaging’, ‘intimate’, ‘phenomenalistic’), some by historical figures (‘syncretic’, ‘musical’, ‘aesthetic’, ‘anti-intellectual’). Not all characterizations are necessarily good; chapters should discuss negative approaches too (e.g. many world philosophies have historically been derided as unsophisticated, unphilosophical, inchoate, rudimentary, etc.). Authors may themselves characterize a regional philosophy negatively – or even argue that a regional thought cannot be considered philosophical – but it is expected that arguments to the contrary are fully considered and author’s characterizations well justified. Characterizations should be briefly evidenced by historical or contemporary examples, but authors are not expected to write a history of their regional philosophy justifying their characterization.

What is World Philosophy? is an academic book, so chapters are expected to reference academic literature. The target readership, however, is not expected to be familiar with the ins-and-outs of specific regional philosophies, so authors should aim to write in an accessible manner. Chapters will be to some degree representative of the study of their regional philosophy, so authors are encouraged to cite the ‘classic’ literature from within their field rather than neglecting it for the sake of engaging with the most recent work. One of the functions of the book is to introduce readers to individual regional philosophies, thereby bringing them more attention as part of the long-term project of globalizing the study of and education in philosophy, so chapters should view themselves primarily as introducing and overviewing (1) the problematics associated with defining regional philosophies and (2) some generalizations about what makes them distinctive, if anything; only secondarily should authors seek to advance their own position, and chapters will not be rejected if authors have no specific opinion on any of the problems and characterizations they discuss. On the contrary,

If you are interested in authoring a chapter for what is expected to be a foundational volume in the study of world philosophies, please submit to [email protected] (1) an abstract between 200 and 500 words in length and (2) a short biography, both of which, if your proposed chapter is selected for inclusion within the book, will be submitted to publishers as part of the book proposal. Please also include (3) either your curriculum vitae or a list of some of your publications that would suggest that you are a good fit for writing the chapter on the regional philosophy you have selected. Chapters should be anticipated to be between 6,000 and 10,000 words in length. It would be helpful if you could indicate in your submission an expected word length if possible, but this is not a requirement. There is no deadline for submissions but we will review submissions as they come in and start allocating chapters, so we suggest that, if you are interested in writing a chapter, you send an email now expressing your interest even before submitting an abstract. In the case of more than one interest in a chapter, we will await the submission of all abstracts and decide between them. Authors may be given the choice to co-author a chapter. We would like an idea of what chapters will be in the book by the end of the year so that we can get a proposal sent to publishers by the beginning of 2024, so do not delay in sending your abstracts!