CFP: Philosophical Topics: “Social Visibility”

Call for Papers — Issue of Philosophical Topics: “Social Visibility”

Volume Editors: Matthew Congdon (Vanderbilt University) and Alice Crary (The New School for Social Research)

Deadline: October 1, 2020

If we are to register and respond rightly to conditions of suffering and injustice, these conditions must be visible. Unjust circumstances, and those harmed by them, must appear worthy of attention and practical response, so that they are taken to issue in intelligible and authoritative calls to action. Yet we inhabit a world in which the field of social visibility is shaped by structures of domination, and in which individuals’ capacities for ethical perception and judgment are often substantially compromised. Where we are confronted with structural racism, many see a properly functioning justice system; where we are confronted with appalling levels of economic inequality and exploitation, many see free and fair exchange; where we are confronted with environmentally unsustainable ‘farming’ industries that inflict great suffering on nonhuman animals, many see reasonable institutions for feeding human beings. How do these perceptual distortions arise and how might we challenge them? What forms of social critique are available for exposing their falsity? And how might the domain of social visibility be ruptured so that we come to see conditions of suffering and injustice more accurately?

This issue of Philosophical Topics aims to showcase new work on ideology and social critique that focuses upon theoretical and practical issues surrounding the visibility of oppression. We are interested in work that challenges received conceptions of social critique and expands the range of rational resources for making conditions of suffering and injustice visible. These expanded resources include, among others, perspectives of grassroots social movements, personal voices of survivor narratives and stories of trauma, aesthetic experiences, including engagement with works of art and literature, conceptual resources generated by counter-publics, insights gleaned from new versions of standpoint theory, and illumination cast by revived attention to classical critical concepts such as ideology and immanent critique. The volume aims to bring together scholars representing a range of traditions of critical social thought (e.g., feminist theory, critical race theory, critical disability studies, decolonial theory, critical animal studies, Critical Theory, Anglo-American ethics and philosophy of social science, and moral psychology) that provocatively advance the philosophical understanding of social critique and practice.

Submissions may not be previously published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. Please prepare manuscripts for blind review and send your paper as a .pdf or .doc to [email protected] with “Social Visibility” in the subject line. Submissions should be no longer than 9,000 words with notes. Submissions will be accepted until October 1, 2020.

For more information, please contact the guest editors, Matthew Congdon ([email protected]) and Alice Crary ([email protected]).