CFP: Arkete: War Between Ethics, Neurobiology and Philosophy

Arkete. Rivista di studi filosofici Special Issue 2025 Call for Papers: War Between Ethics, Neurobiology and Philosophy

Editors:
Mariano Bianca (University of Siena)
Paolo Piccari (University of Siena)

Philosophical reflection on war has traditionally developed within the domains of political theory and moral philosophy. Yet contemporary debates increasingly show that war cannot be fully understood solely as a historical or institutional phenomenon. Advances in neuroscience, cognitive science, and philosophical anthropology have brought renewed attention to the cognitive, emotional, and biological dimensions of conflict, raising fundamental questions about the relation between human nature, normativity, and violence.

The experience of war appears simultaneously as a moral problem, a social practice, and a manifestation of deep structures of human cognition and affectivity. Neurobiological research on aggression, fear, empathy, and group dynamics suggests that conflict may involve mechanisms rooted in evolutionary processes and neural architectures, while ethical reflection continues to interrogate responsibility, justification, and the limits of violence. At the same time, philosophy is called to clarify the conceptual frameworks through which war is interpreted — whether as an accidental product of historical circumstances or as a structural possibility inscribed in human forms of life.

This special issue aims to gather contributions that explore war as a multidimensional phenomenon located at the intersection of ethics, neurobiology, and philosophical inquiry. Particular attention will be devoted to analyses that investigate how cognitive structures, affective dispositions, and normative systems interact in shaping both the reality and the representation of conflict.

Contributions may address questions such as the ethical justification or critique of war, the neurobiological bases of aggression and cooperation, the role of emotions and perception in conflict situations, the construction of enemy images, the epistemic and normative dimensions of propaganda, the phenomenology of violence, or the philosophical-anthropological significance of war within human history. Interdisciplinary approaches that preserve a strong philosophical orientation are especially encouraged.

Topics areas

Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Ethical theories of war and peace (just war theory, pacifism, realism)

• Neurobiological foundations of aggression and cooperation

• Moral emotions and conflict (fear, anger, empathy, hatred)

• Cognitive and perceptual structures involved in violence

• Group identity, ideology, and in-group/out-group dynamics

• Representation and construction of the enemy

• Propaganda, misinformation, and epistemic distortion in wartime

• Responsibility, agency, and collective violence

• Phenomenology of violence and lived experience of war

• Trauma, memory, and narrative identity

• Philosophical anthropology and the ontology of conflict

• War, technology, and transformations of human cognition

• Normativity and moral limits of violence

Interdisciplinary approaches that preserve a strong philosophical orientation are especially encouraged.es

Submission Guidelines

Submissions must be original and unpublished, written in English or Italian, and formatted according to the journal’s editorial guidelines. All manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

The 2025 issue of Arkete will be dedicated to these questions. The volume will include articles selected through this Call for Papers as well as invited contributions by national and international scholars.

All submissions must be sent no later than 31 May 2026 to the Editors at:

[email protected]
[email protected]

Manuscripts must conform to the editorial guidelines available at:
https://www.arkete.it

Accepted languages: English and Italian.

Maximum length: 40,000 characters (including spaces, footnotes, references, and abstract).

Each submission must include:

• an abstract (max. 150 words, in English)

• 5–6 keywords (in English)

• the anonymised manuscript prepared for blind review

In a separate file attached to the same email, authors must provide:

• name and surname

• institutional affiliation

• email address

• title of the paper

• abstract and keywords