CFP: Duality and Opposition

The philosophy departments of Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin will host the annual Dublin Graduate Philosophy Conference. The keynote speakers will be Dr. Fabien Schang from Moscow State University and Prof. Vasilis Politis from Trinity College Dublin. We cordially invite graduate students working in relevant or related fields to submit their work for presentation during the conference.

The theme of this conference will be ‘Duality and Opposition’. This has been a perennial topic of study since the earliest philosophies, and also continues to be discussed in a number of other disciplines in the present day. The philosophy of duality and opposition has become a broad and interdisciplinary field. However, we encourage submission of papers that address the general notion of duality and opposition, or that address examples of such oppositions, which the applicants to this conference consider to be of interest to the study of this topic. Through this focus we wish to facilitate broad participation in discussion about this most interesting topic. Papers will be accepted for review from within any discipline or methodology, as long as they attend to some aspect of, or relevant to, the main philosophical topic, while have in mind our wish to facilitate interaction with a broad spectrum of respondents.                      

Some examples of other key terms that are sometimes used to describe the same or related topics are: Antonymy, Polarity, Complementarity, Contradiction, Contrariety, Chirality, Dyadic, Binary, Difference, Enantia, Enantiomorphic, etc.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of suggested topics and questions:

· The logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ontology, semiotics, etc., of opposition and duality.

· A paper from an ancient, analytic, continental, eastern, etc., philosophical standpoint.

· A paper about opposition and duality from the standpoint of the philosophy of a particular discipline, for example, linguistic, psychological, sociological, anthropological, mathematical, physical, etc.

· A historical paper about a particular thinker or thinkers’ attitude to the topic.

· A paper about the ‘unity of opposites’, in any tradition.

· What is opposition? What is duality?

· Are they ‘real’?

Papers must be around 3,500 words long (suitable for approximately a 30 minute presentation). Please submit the full paper for blind review (.doc or .pdf) together with a 200-word abstract (omitting personal information), and an additional cover letter with the title of your paper, affiliation and contact details to [email protected].