CFP: Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism

Call for Papers: Vol. 12 (2024) – No 1-2; Vol. 13 (2025) – No 1-2

Granted that submissions not related to calls will also be considered,
for the next four issues of Relations, to be published in 2024 and 2025,
the following three calls for papers are active:

- Rationalism, Sentientism, Biocentrism, Ecocentrism: What is the Most Appropriate Environmental Ethics for Those Who Take a Non-anthropocentric Perspective?
By now, in the 21st century, a perspective that limits the moral community to human beings alone is no longer a sustainable position, because it falls into speciesism, an approach that has the same defects as racism and sexism. Once we have overcome a conception that sees humans as the only beings who have value in themselves and for whom we must protect the environment, what are the possible alternatives?
From an ethical-philosophical point of view the problem discussed is that of the extension of the moral community. Who are the moral patients, i.e. the entities that are worthwhile in themselves (also as ends and not only as means) and towards which we have direct moral obligations? Philosophers have identified the following four as the most plausible approaches for those who intend to move in a non-anthropocentric perspective: (1) rationalism (or personalism), according to which moral community is composed only by rational beings or persons (i.e., beings endowed with mental complexity); (2) sentientism or sentiocentrism, which includes all sentient beings in the moral community; (3) biocentrism, according to which the status of moral patient is extended to every living organism, animal or vegetal, sentient or non-sentient, as a teleological center of life; (4) ecocentrism, for which, not only, or not so much, individual entities are deserving of direct moral protection, but (also) totalities: species, ecosystems, etc. and, beyond them, inanimate entities.
Moreover, there is not only the problem of the extension of the moral community. There is also the problem of its internal structure. Is this structure egalitarian or hierarchical? Do the members of the moral community have the same moral rank or are they to be placed on different levels of consideration? And so we can have, for instance, egalitarian and non-egalitarian forms of sentientism or biocentrism.
Which of the previous options appears to be the most appropriate? Or are there further possibilities to explore? With this Call Relations asks for contributions that try to answer the questions just formulated.

- Peter Singer’s Animal Ethics and Its Critics
The republication of Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation (Animal Liberation Now: The Definitive Classic Renewed, 23 May 2023) in a profoundly renewed version (two-thirds of the book consists of entirely new material) gives us the opportunity to reflect on the thinking of one of the most influential exponents of animal ethics and defenders of the animal cause. We invite scholars to submit proposals for articles exploring the most significant aspects of Singer’s Animal Ethics. For example, the theoretical and practical variations of the Singerian model over the fifty years of its development, the principle of equal consideration of interests, Singer’s critics from both moderate and radical sides, etc.

- Reflections and Considerations on Martha C. Nussbaum’s Approach to Animal Ethics, Starting from Her Recent “Justice for Animals” (2023).
Martha C. Nussbaum is one of the world’s most influential philosophers and in her recent book Justice for Animals she systematically sets out her convictions regarding the “animal question”. This Call of Relations requires a critical evaluation of the perspective developed by Nussbaum in the volume and a comparison with her previous texts on the subject.

Editor: F. Allegri

Vol. 12 (2024) – No 1-2

First Issue
Deadline for the submission of papers: April 15, 2024
Notification of acceptance, conditional acceptance, or rejection: May 31, 2024
Deadline for the submission of the final draft: June 30, 2024

Second Issue
Deadline for the submission of papers: September 15, 2024
Notification of acceptance, conditional acceptance, or rejection: October 31, 2024
Deadline for the submission of the final draft: November 30, 2024

Vol. 13 (2025) – No 1-2

First Issue
Deadline for the submission of papers: March 15, 2025
Notification of acceptance, conditional acceptance, or rejection: April 30, 2025
Deadline for the submission of the final draft: May 31, 2025

Second Issue
Deadline for the submission of papers: September 15, 2025
Notification of acceptance, conditional acceptance, or rejection: October 31, 2025
Deadline for the submission of the final draft: November 30, 2025

Authors are invited to submit their papers (the texts should be no longer than 7.000 words, references included) by uploading them on the journal website.
From the home page you will have to follow the For Authors link.
We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal policies, as well as the Submissions page and the Author Guidelines.

All submitted works considered suitable for review will undergo anonymous double-blind review process.

You can find more information on the following web page:

https://www.ledonline.it/index.php/relations

https://www.ledonline.it/index.php/Relations/announcement/view/95

About the journal

Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism is a peer-refereed open access journal of trans-anthropocentric ethics and related inquires. The main aim of the journal is to create a professional interdisciplinary forum in Europe to discuss moral and scientific issues that concern the increasing need of going beyond narrow anthropocentric paradigms in all fields of knowledge. The journal accepts submissions on all topics which promote European research adopting a non-anthropocentric ethical perspective on both interspecific and intraspecific relationships between all life species – humans included – and between these and the abiotic environment.

We welcome papers, comments, debates, interviews, book and movie reviews, as well as presentations, reports, and other news concerning relevant activities and events. We envision inter- and trans-disciplinary contributions and dialogue from a wide variety of approaches: humanities (e.g. philosophy, literature, arts, law, and religious studies), life sciences (e.g. biology, ecology, ethology, medicine), and social sciences (e.g. economics, politics, anthropology, sociology, psychology). We especially encourage collaborative submissions from different disciplinary approaches, from both senior and junior scholars (including graduate students). All suitable submissions should address both academic and lay audiences as well as relevant stakeholders. Since the journal refers to an international readership of people from different disciplines, both inside and outside the academic community, contributors should keep in mind this heterogeneity of provenances and areas of expertise when writing.

The section «Comments, Debates & Interviews» includes scholarly comments as well as debates and interviews between two or more scholars. The section «Books & Movies Reviews» includes comments and reflections on important texts and movies. The section «News» includes reports and presentations of conferences and workshops, as well as information on activities, events, and other projects.