CFP: 1984 and Philosophy

Call for Abstracts: 1984 and Philosophy (Ezio Di Nucci & Stefan Storrie, Editors)

Abstracts are sought for a volume in Open Court’s Philosophy of Popular Culture series on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four with the title “1984 and Philosophy”.

Contributors to this volume include: Mark Alfano, James Conant, Vincent Hendricks and Torbjörn Tännsjö.

“1984” is a deeply philosophical work that engages both with timeless questions about the nature of truth, language, morality, and what it means to be human, as well as specific issues in ethics about surveillance, torture, perpetual war and a host of other topics.

The book has been at the forefront of modern culture since its publication in 1949 and interest in the book has now reached a new peek. People are currently grappling with the rise of populist political movements and the undermining of the conventional understanding of truth and objectivity (the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 was “post-truth”, to mention but one of many recent indicators). In this situation it is no exaggeration to say that Orwell’s book is the central cultural point of reference. Indeed, “1984” is the number one best-selling book on Amazon in 2017 (as of February 2d).

With its devastatingly bleak conclusion, “1984” does not offer any obvious answers to the reader. But through its literary imagination it gives us the tools for conceptualizing institutions, ideologies and philosophical issues.

The volume is aimed at the general reader who is interested in “1984”. The chapter should focus on “1984” and bring out philosophical ideas naturally as a way of illuminating the topic. The length of each chapter should be between 3-4 thousand words. The publisher and we the editors agree that the projected book is highly topical, indeed, urgent, and we aim to release the book early in 2018.

We are seeking abstracts, but anyone who has already written an unpublished paper on this topic may submit it in its entirety. Potential contributors may want to examine other volumes in the Open Court series.

Please feel free to circulate this call and forward it to anyone who might be interested in contributing.

Contributor Guidelines:

1. Abstract of paper (500 words)

2. CV for each author/coauthor of the paper

3. Submit your abstract to [email protected]

4. Deadlines:

Abstracts due May 1, 2017

Notification: May 15, 2017

First drafts due July 15, 2017

Final drafts due September 15, 2017

(we are looking to complete the entire ms by October 2017, so early submissions are encouraged and welcomed!)