CFP: Analytic Approaches to the History of Philosophy

This is a call for papers in the “philosophical history of philosophy.” The term has been used in various ways in debates about methodology in the study of philosophy’s history. In this CFP, we do not only mean using philosophical ideas from the past to inform or shape one’s own contemporary philosophical commitments. We also mean the opposite: the deliberate and explicit use of contemporary analytic philosophy to inform and deepen our understanding of past philosophical ideas. This is not limited to reconstructing the ideas of past philosophers; at times this approach seeks to explore what these ideas themselves amount to, even beyond the conscious intentions of their authors.

As this perspective naturally raises methodological questions,we welcome not only work that uses this approach but also work that reflects on it, whether positively or critically, as a methodology in the history of philosophy.

The subject area for this inaugural edition of the Analytic Approaches Conference is limited to metaphysics. We invite papers in metaphysics that adopt or discuss an explicitly analytic approach for a two-day workshop in Ankara. The call is open to contributions from all philosophical traditions, including Western, Eastern, and Islamic philosophies.

The Analytic Approaches Conference is an event jointly organized by the Departments of Philosophy at Middle East Technical University (Ankara), Bilkent University (Ankara), and Koç University (Istanbul). The inaugural meeting will be held on June 5–6, 2027, and hosted by the Department of Philosophy at Bilkent University.

We are pleased to announce our keynote speakers:

Monima Chadha (University of Oxford)

Kris McDaniel (University of Notre Dame)

While we are unable to offer travel funding, the Bilkent University Department of Philosophy will provide free on-campus lodging and meals for all conference participants.

Please join us in discovering, rethinking, and engaging the past through the lens of analytic philosophy.

We invite submissions of abstracts (600–800 words) for papers suitable for 30-minute presentations on any period in the history of metaphysics up to the end of the twentieth century. Abstracts should be submitted to [email protected] by January 1, 2027 and prepared for blind review. Please include a separate title page with your name and institutional affiliation.

Organizers:

Refik Güremen (METU), James Kinkaid (Bilkent University), Damien Storey (Koç University)