CFP: PhiMiSci Special Issue on Infant Consciousness
Submission deadline: October 15, 2025
Details
Special Issue on Infant Consciousness
Journal Philosophy and the Mind Sciences
Special Issue Editors: Claudia Passos-Ferreira, Sascha Benjamin Fink, Joel Frohlich
Deadline for article submission October 15th, 2025.
The special issue will examine many questions about consciousness in infants, and will address where things stand in the philosophy and the science of infant consciousness. Themes for submission to this special issue include, but are not limited to, the following questions:
- When does consciousness emerge in human development?
- What do theories of consciousness predict about infants?
- What evidence helps us detect consciousness in infants?
- What are the sufficient and necessary conditions for infant consciousness?
- Is there a precise border for infant consciousness or a vague border?
- What is the best methodology to investigate consciousness in infants?
- Are fetuses conscious?
- How do various kinds of consciousness develop?
- How can we characterize the experience of being an infant?
- What is the nature of early stages of consciousness?
- What are the contents of a newborn baby’s consciousness?
- What are the moral implications of the emergence of consciousness?
- When do infants first acquire knowledge about their conscious experience?
- Can insights from other areas, e.g., animal research and artificial intelligence, help us to make progress in infant consciousness?
Deadlines and Schedule:
Manuscript Submission Period: July 1st – October 15th, 2025
Estimated Publication Date: 2nd quarter of 2026.