Continental Philosophy of Action

The aim of the two-day international conference is to explore, clarify and apply the resources of Continental thought about action and agency. Philosophy of action in the analytic tradition, while not immune from internal disagreements, can be thought of as a more-or-less coherent philosophical subfield. While there are exceptions, Anglo-American philosophers of action tend to share metaphysical commitments (regarding event-causality, for example, or the existence of representational mental states), canonical references (Anscombe, Davidson, Bratman, et al.), and sets of problems regarding action (eg, “causal deviance”, the so-called “disappearing agent” problem, intentional omissions, etc.). This situation can be  prima facie  contrasted to the scattered and varied approaches to action and agency one finds in the Continental philosophical tradition. Idealism, Phenomenology, hermeneutics, poststructuralism, new materialisms, and critical theory, to name just a few currents in contemporary Continental thought, are distinguished from one another by seemingly distinct sets of philosophical concerns and vocabularies, and by diverse metaphysical and methodological commitments. Given the treatment of action and agency in each of these currents is inseparable from specific sets of philosophical concerns and commitments, it can seem that Continental philosophers do not share enough common ground to talk together about action and agency without talking past one another. In part, then, this conference wishes to clarify the extent to which one could meaningfully speak of “Continental philosophy of action.” But also, working back down from these high-level, general concerns, the conference wishes to focus on specific, field-defining problems of action and agency, and the resources that might be drawn from Continental thought to address these problems in novel ways. Possible topics of interest might thus include:

• To what extent can different currents in Continental philosophy be said to share general, or perhaps overlapping, concerns regarding action?
• What concerns can Continental philosophy/philosophers of action be said to share with Anglo-American philosophy/philosophers of action?
• Can some of the open problems in Anglo-American philosophy of action be addressed by Continental philosophy/philosophers of action?
• What is the price of Continental “solutions” to problems in Anglo-American philosophy of action, in terms of the new concerns, or new metaphysical and methodological commitments, that would need to be taken on?
• Has Continental philosophy identified action-problems that have yet to be noticed or adequately dealt with in the Analytic tradition, and how might they be addressed?
• How have specific Continental approaches or thinkers conceptualized the question of agency and action and why does this continue to have relevance?

Format: Speakers will have 20 minutes to present their paper, followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion. Those interested in participating should send a 400-word abstract to [email protected] by 30 April, 2026. The conference will be in English and attendance is free. More information can be found at:  https://eventos.ucm.es/go/ continentalphilosophyofaction 

Conference organizers: Emma Ingala, Gavin Rae (Complutense University of Madrid) and Sean Bowden (Deakin University, Australia).