CFP: Philosophy of the History of Philosophy

17th Annual Boston College Philosophy Graduate Conference
"Philosophy of the History of Philosophy"
8-9 April, 2016 - Boston College - Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

Confirmed Speakers -- Dan Garber (Princeton University), Wolfgang Mann (Columbia University), Eileen O'Neill (UMass Ahmerst), Claude Panaccio (Université du Québec à Montréal) / Patrick Byrne (Boston College), Richard Kearney (Boston College), Eileen Sweeney (Boston College)

CALL FOR PAPERS (DEADLINE EXTENDED)

The 17th Annual Boston College Philosophy Graduate Conference, “Philosophy of the History of Philosophy,” will focus on the relation that philosophy has with its own history. The Conference will be divided into four sections, each dedicated to one of the four major philosophical epochs (ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary).

The Conference will be addressing, among others, the following questions: Why and for the sake of what do we practice the history of philosophy? Is it possible to do philosophy a-historically? Or to do the history of philosophy a-philosophically? When practicing the history of philosophy, where does history stop and where does philosophy begin? Do philosophical problems have continuity through history? How does a text, problem, or author become canonical? In how many ways do we deal with a specific author, problem, or epoch within the history of philosophy? What influence do different approaches to the history of philosophy have on the nature and task of philosophy today?

We welcome submissions on any topic within the history of philosophy. We especially encourage papers that problematize, methodologically or in content, the way in which they treat the history of the discipline, addressing questions like: Why do I approach Greek philosophy philologically? Why do I reconstruct and evaluate arguments in medieval philosophy? Why do I think that the modern problem of mind is still relevant today? Why does hermeneutics link philosophy with its own history? Is contemporary philosophy’s aim to solve and/or clarify historical problems, or to create new problems?

Please send submissions to [email protected] by March 4, 2016. Papers should not exceed 3500 words, must include an abstract of no more than 150 words, and should be suitable for a 20-minute presentation. Please prepare papers for anonymous review, including a cover letter with your name, paper title, affiliation, contact information, and the section-epoch in which the paper is intended to be presented. Acceptances will be announced no later than March 15, 2016.

Contact: Vicente Muñoz-Reja ([email protected]) or Melissa Fitzpatrick ([email protected])