CFP: “Thaumàzein” special issue: “Thinking the Ecological Crisis”

Editors: Luca Valera (Universidad de Valladolid/Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), Fiorenza Toccafondi (Università degli Studi di Firenze)

Call for Abstracts - Rivista Thaumàzein (https://www.rivista.thaumazein.it/index.php/thaum/index)

A global ecological crisis cannot be merely considered as a probable or distant event anymore. Both the ongoing climate change as well as the numerous scientific data available and the amount of published thematic research confirm the fact that we are currently experiencing such a crisis. It is therefore as necessary as ever to approach the present crisis from different points of view and approaches, so as to offer a complex understanding of the issue, avoiding possible scientistic reductionism or simplification.

In this sense, philosophy can still play a key role in helping us to rethink the current ecological crisis, clarifying concepts and paradigms and offering hermeneutical keys to current events. Moreover, philosophy itself could offer pathways and alternatives in order to deal with the ecological crisis in an effective and pragmatic way, guiding political discussion and illuminating possible decisions in this area, both at the particular and national (or international) levels. Because of what has been said so far, this special issue is not intended to offer simply a historical (or historiographical) perspective on the topic of the ecological crisis, but rather a thematic approach to concrete issues associated with ecology. These issues may be approached from different points of view, highlighting the main metaphysical/cosmological, epistemological, ethical, and political issues. In particular, essays addressing the following topics may be welcomed in this special issue:

- ethical issues dealing with technological impact on the environment (e.g., geoengineering, genetic modification of animal and plant species, identification of direct and indirect causes of climate change, etc. ) or with the criteria for assessing actions to mitigate climate change (the usefulness of the distinction intrinsic/instrumental value; the need to rethink the principles of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment or to reevaluate Commoner’s laws of ecology; the relevance of approaches peculiar to deep ecology or ecofeminism, etc.).

- political issues concerning coexistence with other species (e.g., the idea of proposing new forms of “ecological citizenship”); the need to rethink institutional forms of dealing with the climate emergency (such as the proposal to draft a planetary ecological constitution or to amend existing constitutions to adapt them to the new climate demands).

- cosmological, theological, and metaphysical issues concerning the “new ecological paradigm,” such as the relationship between deep ecology and monist immanentism; the influence of Spinoza in current ecological thought; the mutual relationships between pantheism (or panentheism) and the ecological point pf view of prominent contemporary authors (e.g., Naess, Panikkar, Thoreau, Muir, etc.); religious (or theological) forms of thinking about ecology (e.g., the relationship between Buddhism and ecology).  

- epistemological issues regarding the interpretation of data and predictions concerning climate change or the reliability of current scientific instruments.

People interested in these –or similar– topics may send a long abstract (700 words, in English) to: [email protected] and [email protected] by February 20th 2024.

We expect that final papers (either in English or Italian) would be around 5,000-7,000 words (please note that neither submission nor acceptance of an abstract is a guarantee of publication). Authors should adapt their papers to the following guidelines: https://www.rivista.thaumazein.it/index.php/thaum/about/submissions#authorGuidelines.

The deadline for the final paper is September 20th, 2024.