CFP: Philosophy in Astrobiology - special issue of Philosophical Problems in Science

Astrobiology sits at a peculiar crossroads. It is a science without a stable object of study – no confirmed life beyond Earth  – and yet it reshapes how we think about life, mind, and knowledge itself. It asks what counts as evidence when there is almost none, what it means to recognise life when our only example is terrestrial, and whether our sciences can ever truly escape the Earth-centric paradigm, and if they should.

This special issue of Philosophical Problems in Science invites contributions that explore how astrobiology challenges and transforms philosophical reflection. The aim is to explore how concepts such as life, cognition, evolution, and evidence shift when the cosmic scale comes into view.

Possible themes include (but are not limited to):

• What is life, and can the definition survive contact with the unknown?

• The ontology of living worlds: is life an entity or a planetary process?

• Astrobiology and the metaphysics of possibility: could life be otherwise?

• Could Intelligence, computation, consciousness,  and information be different (differently conceived) in a non-terrestrial framework?

• Epistemic and methodological problems in detecting biosignatures.

• n=1 problem in logic and reasoning.

• The Drake Equation and the limits of probabilistic reasoning: can probability meaningfully apply when the reference class is one?

• Fine-tuning and cosmological contingency.

• Artificial intelligence as an instrument of cosmic perception.

• Indirect inference in astrobiology as an epistemological issue.

• Astrobiology as a new kind of scientific epistemology.

• Astrobiology as post-human philosophy of science: rethinking life, mind, and agency on a cosmic scale.

• Convergent evolution and the problem of inevitability: could intelligence be a cosmic attractor?

• Rare Earth and the return of cosmic specialness: humility, contingency, and anthropocentrism.

• The Fermi Paradox as an epistemic and existential problem: what does cosmic silence tell us about evidence, expectation, and ourselves?

• The aesthetics of the unknown: imagination, speculation, and representation in astrobiology.

• The anthropic principle revisited: observer selection, self-location, and the conditions for intelligibility in the cosmos.

• Ethical and existential consequences of the discovery or silence of extraterrestrial life.

• Autonomous exploratory robots meeting possible extraterrestrial life: moral and practical problems.

• The moral status of non-terrestrial environments and ethics beyond Earth.

• Governance and political philosophy in interplanetary research and ownership.

• Minimal cognition conditions for extraterrestrial life: the concept of mind on other worlds and Earth.

• Extremophiles and the shifting boundaries of what counts as “living”.

• From metabolism to meaning: philosophy of mind and language in non-terrestrial contexts.

• Communication with extra-terrestrial intelligence and cognitive systems, along with issues in symbolic structures and meaning.

• Meeting extraterrestrial civilizations: sci-fi cases, reality, and readiness. How could we respond to a SOLARIS case (Lem’s sci-fi extraterrestrial mind affecting human consciousness)?

• “Astrophilosophy”/”xenophilosophy”: epistemology, ethics, and meaning beyond Earth.

We especially welcome papers that cross disciplinary boundaries and reflect on how the search for life elsewhere alters our understanding of life here, especially in relation to biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, linguistics, psychology, and other sciences.

The format of submissions is specified on the Philosophical Problems in Science submission page. Submissions should not exceed 8000 words excluding references. The submission should follow APA 7 format and be blinded for peer review. Please include an abstract (150–200 words) and 4-5 keywords.

Selected papers will appear in a special issue of Philosophical Problems in Science (https://zfn.edu.pl, WoS/Scopus). All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review.

Deadline for submissions: May 1, 2026

SUBMISSION

Manuscripts should be submitted through the journal’s online system:
https://zfn.edu.pl/index.php/zfn/about/submissions  

Please write “special issue” in the editor comments.

CONTACT

For questions about the special issue, please contact the guest editors:
Erik Persson and Kristina Šekrst at [email protected]