CFP: Place/s of Thinking On the Claim to Inter-“Cultural” Philosophy

Thinking happens at/in a place. Obviously, there always needs to be a site or a point of view where thinking occurs—a place at which a thought manifests, arrives, changes itself and proceeds along in new ways. At first, this statement sounds trivial and obvious. Of course, thinking in any manner presumes a place, just as every statement, every action, every sensation, and so forth does. It appears then that it would be nearly impossible for thinking to take place without actually taking place; thinking would simply have no impression or expression. Certainly, “place” can refer to a manifold of things—the body (lived and physical), political class, social status,  socialized) gender, language, cultural networks, lifeworlds, and last but not least (geographical) landscapes as well as (historical) time periods. All of these are, within each constellation, not only the places that condition thought, rather each appears to allow only a determined, bordered, and restricted type of thinking according to each sense of place. And yet, deeply penetrating experiences of thinking in both the past and present always again raise the claim of being universal and in this sense of being inter- and/or trans-cultural, which always means between bodies and beyond the body, between and beyond the strata and settings of geography, time, language, gender, skin color, and so on.

The breadth of this problem prompts a question, namely, what are the theoretical approaches that can help us explore and understand the complexities of where thinking takes place? How can we comprehend this unfathomable concept of “a place”, and why does it seem that thinking presupposes it— or rather, if anything, does place shape thinking? Can one speak at all of a “pure” place, unaffected by thinking, without running into problems? Or, on the contrary, does thinking have to be bound to a certain place? Might “universal” thinking be possible, in a way that thinks between and beyond places and that occurs always from elsewhere? Does a plurality of places change or resituate the apparent tension between thinking and place?

All parties interested in one or more of the topics described here are welcome to actively participate in the conference and to send us an abstract (max. 500 words). With this call for papers we are open to having (young) researchers from other disciplines join us. The deadline for abstracts is 15 April 2013 (see contact details below). We will notify participants of decisions regarding the acceptance of abstracts no later than 15 May 2013. For those receiving a positive response, we will ask you to send us finalized version of your work by 15 August (suitable for a 20 minute presentation). We can arrange travel and lodging allowances for invitees (according to need), and there is also the possibility of publication.

Organization: Murat Ates, Mag. and James Garrison, M.A.
Institutional Support: Univ. Dr. Georg Stenger, Univ. Dr. Franz Martin  Wimmer
The conference is a collaboration between the University of Vienna’s
Department of Philosophy and the Institute for Arts and Sciences (IWK)

Contact address (for sending abstracts):
[email protected] or [email protected]

Mailing address:
University of Vienna
Neues Institutsgebäude
Department of Philosophy, z.H. James Garrison (D0302)
Universitätsstraße 7
1010 Vienna
Austria