CFP: IN_Festival of Philosophy

12th Edition

1–27 September 2026
Freedom. Can We Be Free Together?

Conference: 24-26 September 2026

Keynote in English: Simona Forti (Scuola Normale Superiore)

The Festival

For over a decade, the IN-Philosophy Festival has transformed the island of Ischia into a living laboratory of thought, a crossroads where philosophy, science, art, and community converge. Founded and directed by philosopher Raffaele Mirelli, the Festival has become an international point of reference for its ability to combine academic rigor with strong public engagement, restoring philosophy to its original public and dialogical vocation.

Over the course of its eleven previous editions, the island has hosted philosophers, scientists, writers, artists, psychologists, theologians, and intellectuals such as Vito Mancuso, Erri De Luca, Amalia Ercoli Finzi, Vittorino Andreoli, Umberto Galimberti, Massimo Cacciari, Aldo Cazzullo, and many other scholars from Italian and international universities. Each year, hundreds of participants—academics, students, and citizens—turn the island into a shared space of reflection, where philosophy is experienced in the open air, facing the sea.

Promoted by InSophia APS, in collaboration with the Department of Cultural Heritage Sciences of the University of Salerno (DISPAC), the University of Toronto Mississauga (Department of Visual Studies), the Italian Philosophical Society, HETA – Center for Psychological Treatment and Distress, Dora News – Psychology and Beyond, the “A. Canova” High School of Treviso, the “G. Buchner” High School of Ischia, Filosofia in Movimento, Gazzetta Filosofica, the La Mortella Gardens of Ischia, the Friends of Gabriele Mattera, under the High Patronage of the European Parliament, and with the patronage of the Campania Region, FISP (International Federation of Philosophical Societies), the “G. Sadoul” Cultural Circle, and the PIDA International Architecture Award.

After exploring themes such as Time, Universes, Artificial Identities, and Happiness, the 2026 edition addresses Freedom as a radical shared question: “Can we be free together?”

The IN-Philosophy Festival takes place in some of the most evocative locations on the island of Ischia—spaces where nature, art, and knowledge intertwine, and where philosophy encounters beauty and life.

The La Mortella Gardens host the opening evening of the Festival, featuring a classical music concert and the inaugural keynote, in a dialogue of sound, words, and landscape that marks each edition with harmony between art and thought.

The Aragonese Castle, finally, becomes the evening stage for major public encounters, where philosophy, science, and art engage in dialogue by the sea, illuminated by the symbolic power of the site.

Each space of the Festival is part of a single experience: thinking together, on an island that transforms knowledge into encounter and reflection into life.

The Theme

Every authentic freedom is both a political act and an ethical gesture. Political, because it concerns the construction of shared spaces and the possibility of speech; ethical, because it requires responsibility toward others. Freedom, if not grounded in justice, becomes tyranny; if not rooted ethics, it exploits. In an age of polarization, control, and surveillance, freedom may also return as a practice of presence: an attempt to remain in the world with awareness, to act without dominating, to oppose without destroying, to make free use without abuse. Politics and ethics thus rediscover their common root: encounter, and the recognition of the other as a condition of one’s own existence.

To be free today thus also means to face complexity without renouncing depth; to safeguard distance as a space for thought; to recognize that freedom is not a solitary right, but a shared practice. We live in an age of “diffusions”—biological, cultural, technological—in which everything spreads, yet little endures. So perhaps freedom also demands that we learn yet again how to dwell: to rediscover the value of limits, silence, and relation. Freedom is not a possession, but a shared movement, a fragile balance between the right to say “I” and the ability to remain “we.” Perhaps it is here that the deepest meaning of being human today is at stake: in the impossible yet necessary convergence between personal and collective freedom, between the individual who affirms themselves and the community that enjoins them. Freedom is not a good to be safeguarded, but a way of practicing collectivity that must be renewed every day.

It is not born in the silence of the self, but in the shared breath of the community.

Perhaps the most genuine question remains the same: can we be free together?

Thematic Sessions (Guidelines for Contributions)

Proposals may address the theme of freedom from an interdisciplinary, theoretical, or applied perspective. The following sessions outline the main areas of inquiry of the Festival and are open to contributions from philosophers, scientists, artists, psychologists, sociologists, historians, economists, theologians, legal scholars, and researchers in contemporary culture.

Aim of the Thematic Sessions

The IN-Philosophy Festival invites scholars, researchers, and professionals from different fields of knowledge to contribute original reflections on the theme of Freedom, in its multiple theoretical, practical, and symbolic articulations.

The aim is to foster dialogue among disciplines and perspectives which, although differing in method and language, share a common need to question freedom as a human, social, and epistemic experience.

The proposed thematic sessions are not intended as rigid limits, but as horizons of inspiration through which each author may orient their contribution. Sessions will take place in Ischia from 24 to 26 September.

I. Origins and Figures of Freedom

Prometheus, Ulysses, and the Origins of the Free Act
Myth as the root of human freedom: disobedience, journey, and knowledge.
→ Ancient philosophy, comparative mythology, classical literature.

Law and the Soul
Between Socrates and Augustine: inner freedom and moral responsibility.
→ Moral philosophy, theology, law.

The Word that Liberates
Literature as an act of emancipation: from Dante to Primo Levi.
→ Literature, linguistics, philosophy of language.

II. Polis and Power

Political Freedom and Fragile Democracy
From Arendt’s thought to polarized societies.
→ Political philosophy, social sciences, communication studies.

Economy and Freedom
Market, labor, inequality: the ethics of money.
→ Civil economy, philosophy of work, sociology.

Architecture of Freedom
Space as right and symbol: open cities, borders, and squares.
→ Architecture, urban studies, public aesthetics.

III. Body, Care, and Freedom

The Liberated Body
Identity, gender, and desire as practices of emancipation.
→ Psychology, gender studies, neuroscience.

Freedom in Fragility
Autonomy and care, health and dignity: the freedom of vulnerable bodies.
→ Bioethics, philosophy of medicine, clinical psychology.

Art as Disobedience
From painting to theatre, creation as a political gesture.
→ Visual arts, aesthetics, art history.

IV. Digital Freedom and New Horizons

Digital Humanism
Restoring meaning to the infosphere: consciousness, AI, and freedom of thought.
→ Philosophy of technology, computer science, AI ethics.

Surveillance and Autonomy
Data, algorithms, and new forms of control.
→ Cyberlaw, digital sociology, political philosophy.

Educating for Presence
Freedom and education in the connected society.
→ Pedagogy, learning psychology, media education.

V. Freedom and the World

An Ecology of Freedom
Inhabiting without dominating: freedom as a measure of the Earth.
→ Philosophical ecology, anthropology, environmental sciences.

The Island and Elsewhere
Freedom as belonging and departure: insular thought.
→ Geophilosophy, Mediterranean anthropology, philosophy of landscape.

To Migrate, to Host, to Remain
The right to move and the duty to welcome.
→ International law, geopolitics, ethics of hospitality.

VI. Freedom and Imagination

Cinema and the Freedom of Vision
From neorealism to digital worlds: images that liberate or imprison?
→ Film studies, media studies, visual aesthetics.

Literature and the Memory of the Self
Writing in order not to disappear: freedom, censorship, and testimony.
→ World literature, philosophy of narration, psychoanalysis.

Faith, Science, and the Future
Between determinism and grace: freedom as responsibility toward the world to come.
→ Theology, philosophy of science, future ethics.

How to Submit Proposals

Languages: Italian, English

Paper proposals (minimum 3,000 and maximum 4,500 characters, including spaces; Times New Roman, font size 12, single spacing), accompanied by a bibliography and a CV, as well as a brief autobiographical note (please specify current institutional affiliation or, if not currently in an academic position, the institution where the most recent course of study or research was completed), must be submitted by 15 April 2026, 11:59 p.m., to: [email protected](please CC: [email protected])

Please send the short biography in a separate file (maximum 1,000 characters, including spaces).
Files must be submitted in *.doc or *.odt format, not *.pdf (Times New Roman, font size 12, single spacing).

Failure to comply with the formal guidelines will result in exclusion.
Each paper will have 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion.
Papers may be presented in Italian or English. Panel proposals are also welcome.

Panels

Each panel must consist of 3 or 4 papers on a common theme. The panel coordinator, who may also be one of the speakers, is responsible for introducing and moderating the discussion. Panel proposals must include the abstracts of each paper (maximum 3,000 characters each) and a general introduction of no more than 3,000 characters.

Publication

As in previous years, a selection of contributions will be published in the official proceedings of the Festival.

A registration fee will be required for speakers. Accommodation options on the island during the Festival week will also be provided.

Selection

The ability to communicate research knowledge to a broad audience is a key criterion for selection. Proposals will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee.

For further information, please contact the Festival’s organizational secretariat or scientific direction at:

[email protected]

[email protected]

The Festival website also provides full information on proposal submission, including the Summer School of Humanities and the Young Thinkers Festival.

www.inphilosophyfestival.it
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