Contemporary Challenges and Values 3: PLURALITY OF VALUES AND RELATIVISM

The Chair of the History of Philosophy and Comparative Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS) and the journal Culture and Values (journals.umcs.pl/kw) warmly invite you to participate in the conference Contemporary Challenges and Values 3: PLURALITY OF VALUES AND RELATIVISM. The conference will be held online (on Zoom) from 15 to 16 May 2024 in two languages: English and Polish. In the course of the conference, we intend to reflect on the relationships between contemporary challenges (both theoretical and practical) and values as they figure both in individual as well as social valuations and in theoretical approaches. In the 3rd edition of the conference, we plan to focus on the issue of the plurality of values and relativism. In particular, we aim to engage with the following questions (which, however, are only exemplary):

-       What is axiological and ethical pluralism? What is axiological and ethical relativism? How do these two positions relate to each other?

-       What are epistemological, methodological, or other justifications for pluralist and relativist positions?

-       Practical applications of axiology and theoretical ethics vs. pluralism and relativism.

-       Which values are currently undergoing transformation and to what extent? How should we understand the nature of such transformations? Do such transformations occur in values themselves or only for us?

-       Are all value transformations stimulated by practical challenges? Are value transformations a normal phenomenon or are they symptomatic of an aberration or a crisis?

-       How do such transformations relate to classical positions in axiology?

-       Can we still speak of the universalism of values (in the context of cultural-civilisational pluralism)?

-       Can we still speak of value optimism today?

We welcome presentations offering systematic approaches to such questions as well as papers discussing approaches already developed in Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Sociology, and so forth. The conference will consist in sections in Polish and in English.

Organisational information:

The conference is open to researchers and PhD students. Please send your abstract to [email protected] by 14 April 2024. The abstract should not exceed 600 words. The presentation of your paper should take no longer than 20 minutes. All submitted abstracts will be reviewed. The decision whether your submission has been accepted will be communicated to you by 23 April 2024.  We plan to publish an issue of Culture and Values devoted to the theme of this conference. Authors interested in publication should register their completed article in the journal system by 21 May 2024 (journals.umcs.pl/kw). All articles submitted to the journal will be subject to a standard peer-review process.