"Learning To Be Human"

The International Association of Jaspers Societies (IAJS) invites members of the international community of scholars to participate in the Eighth International Jaspers Conference.

The IAJS Conference will include a session co-organized by the Karl Jaspers Society of North America and the Philosophy and Religious Studies Program of the University of Macau calledJaspers in a Global Context. The purpose of this session is to discover possibilitiesin Karl Jaspers' work for thinking about those philosophies, histories, and cultures that emerged in different periods and locations as well as to reflect on their interrelationship.

The following presentation topics are particularly welcome for this session:

* Intercultural Communication—intercultural comparisons and productive engagements between East and West, world philosophy, the unity of humanity as opposed to totalitarian thinking 
* The Atomic Bomb and World Peace—the challenges of the nuclear age and philosophical justifications for pacifism
* Transcendence and Immanence—the influence of transcendence and immanence on the practice of cultural criticism, human existence and transcendence, the relationship between conceptions of transcendence and universalistic conceptions of morality 
* Perspectives on Asian Philosophy and Asian Influences on Jaspers—the interpretation of themes in Confucius, the Buddha, Laozi, or Nagarjuna from perspectives informed by existential philosophy as well as the influence of Asian philosophers on Jaspers thought
* Concepts of Self and Humanity—Jaspers' view of self and humanity in comparison and contrast with East Asian views of self and humanity, the relationship between self, humanity and the cosmos 
* Guilt and Responsibility—existential and historical guilt in different cultural contexts, guilt versus shame cultures, responsibilities derived from guilt, guilt and conscience

The deadline for submitting paper proposals is September 10, 2017. Proposals received after this deadline, but before February 1, 2018, may be considered if space permits. Please send a title and an abstract of no more than 200 words with the subject Jaspers in a Global Context to the program co-chairs, Ruth Burch, [email protected], and Mario Wenning,[email protected].

Notification of acceptance for the initial round of submissions will be given by September 15, 2017 (early registration for the World Congress closes on October 1, 2017).