CFP: Histories of failed synthesis

Submission deadline: June 29, 2015

Conference date(s):
November 12, 2015 - November 13, 2015

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Conference Venue:

University of Turin
Torino, Italy

Details

CALL FOR APPLICATION
“HISTORIES OF FAILED SYNTHESIS” 
Graduate Conference in the History of Philosophy,
University of Turin, 12-13 November 2015

The Phd Program in Philosophy of the University of Turin (F.I.N.O.) and the Turin Research Group on Early Modern & Modern Philosophical and Scientific Thought announce a Call for Papers for a Graduate Conference in the History of Philosophy.

Central to the conference is the question of ‘synthesis’, by which we mean here the attempt to compose into unity the multiplicity and variety of the real—be such unification a perceptive, intellectual, a priori, a posteriori, ontological or epistemological one. From a philosophical point of view, any synthesis implies two moments, the effort to disregard divergent elements and the necessity to encompass them. This dichotomy may reflect the irreducibility of the simple to the complex: thus syntheses often fail. 

The purpose of the conference is twofold: to consider how philosophy has engaged this question throughout its history; and to shed light on the unresolved tensions that failed syntheses have left extant. Topics of interest might include (but certainly are not limited to):
- Eclecticism
- Synthesis as opposed/preferred to analysis 
- Synthesis as Aufhebung
- Synthesis in philosophical theories of perception
- Integration – emancipation in the history of political theories
- Synthesis in epistemology
- Synthesis in the mystical tradition

The conference, in our intention, will provide a dialogue between different perspectives, promoting an interaction between scholars and graduate students both in the history of philosophy and of its particular disciplines, and in phenomenology, theoretic philosophy and epistemology.

Each session will be opened by a keynote speaker, respectively Justin E.H. Smith (Université Paris Diderot) and Nicolas De Warren (University of Leuven). Graduate students' presentations shall last 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Lectures and papers will be delivered in English.

The conference will be held the 12th and 13th of November, 2015 at the University of Turin. There will be no registration fees for paper presentations. The organizers plans to cover travel and accommodation costs for six-eight selected graduate students. 

Submission procedures and deadlines:
Graduate students should send a 500-words abstract, prepared for blind review, as an rtf, doc, docx, odt or pdf attachment to: [email protected]. When submitting, please include the following information in the body of the email: author's name; presentation title; abstract; university affiliation.

Deadline for submission is June 30th, 2015. 
A scientific committee will select the presentations. Notifications of acceptance will be sent on July 30th, 2015. The conference program will be announced by September 30th, 2015.
The best papers will be published in a monographic issue of a specialized journal. 

Organization: Edoardo Caracciolo, Claudia Matteini, Lucia Randone

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