CFP: Danish Yearbook of Philosophy

2023 CFP: Politics and Science

Politics and Science

Special theme in Danish Yearbook for Philosophy.

Guest editors: Katrine Krause-Jensen & Kristoffer Balslev Willert, Aarhus University, Denmark (AU)

Short call for papers:

The relation between science and politics has always been intricate and highly debated. On the one hand, some argue that science and research ought to be politically neutral. On the other hand, philosophers like Hilary Putnam have famously claimed that such an ideal for science is neither desirable nor realistic. The Covid-19-pandemic as well as the emerging climate crisis has triggered increased attention to the political reliance of scientific claims and to the relation between political action and science in general. This special theme in the Danish Yearbook of Philosophy will take up issues related to the descriptive as well as the normative questions about the relation between politics and science from a philosophical point of view.

The theme of politics and science is also the overriding theme of the 2021 conference and annual meeting of The Danish Philosophical Society that is arranged by the Department of Philosophy and the History of Ideas at Aarhus University and will take place as an online event the 4th and 5th of March, 2022.

Confirmed contributors and keynote speakers at the conference: Sabine Roeser (TU Delft) og Isabelle Stengers (Université Libre de Bruxelles).

Deadline for submissions is January 1st, 2023.

Guidelines for submissions at the journal’s home page HERE

Danish Yearbook of Philosophy is a peer-reviewed journal founded in 1964. It is now published annually by Brill for The Danish Philosophical Society. Reflecting the broad interpretation of philosophy institutionalized at Danish Universities, the Yearbook aims to cover as broad a philosophical ground as possible in relation to philosophical schools, styles and traditions.

Full call for papers:

The relation between science and politics has always been intricate and highly debated. On the one hand, some argue that science and research ought to be politically neutral. For example, positivists have typically assumed that science should be free from value judgements and assumptions. On the other hand, philosophers like Hilary Putnam have famously claimed that such an ideal for science is neither desirable nor realistic; that all sciences are always already laden with political, moral and aesthetic preferences or values. The Covid-19-pandemic as well as the emerging climate crisis has triggered increased attention to the political reliance of scientific claims and to the relation between political action and science in general.

This special theme in the Danish Yearbook of Philosophy will take up issues related to the descriptive as well as the normative questions about the relation between politics and science from a philosophical point of view. We invite a broad range of articles, including, but not limited to, articles that address concrete cases of important relations between science and politics, such as:

·       How should we understand the epistemic and moral implications of climate science and how does it impact or ought to impact policymaking?

·       What does the Covid19-pandemic tell us about the political aspects of science and the scientific aspects of politics?

·       What are our moral and political responsibilities to address ethical issues within natural scientific research?

·       Is the scientific peer-review-system founded on sound political and ethical reasons?

But we also invite papers investigating more systematic questions, including, but not limited to, questions such as:

·       What is science?

·       How does gender influence and/or ought to influence our conceptions of knowers and practices of knowledge?

·       Does dominant practices and conceptions of knowledge acquisition and justification disadvantage women and other subordinated groups?

·       Is or should science be value-free?

·       What is politics?

·       What are the democratic deficits of epistocracies?

·       How should we understand public trust – or lack hereof – in science?

·       Is the fact-value-distinction apt?   

·       How should we understand the ideal of objectivity within science and knowledge production?

·       How can philosophy contribute to discussions about the relation between science and politics?

·       What is technology and what role does it play in the relation between science and politics?

·       Does technology have political qualities in the sense of embodying certain political structures and power relations?

·       To what degree should political decisions be informed by the human sciences?

·       What are the traditional philosophical views on the relation between politics and science?

·       How should we understand the concept of bias in relation to the interaction between politics and science?

·       What considerations about the relation between politics and science underpin philosophical fields such as philosophy of medicine, feminist philosophy or philosophy of animal rights?

·       What is or ought to be the relation between emotion and knowledge considering the relation between politics and science?

·       How can philosophy contribute to topics such as epistemic injustice, group polarization, epistemic colonialism, fake news, and conspiracy theorizing?

The theme of politics and science is also the overriding theme of the 2021 conference and annual meeting of The Danish Philosophical Society that is arranged by the Department of Philosophy and the History of Ideas at Aarhus University and will take place as an online event the 4th and 5th of March, 2022.

Confirmed contributors and keynote speakers at the conference: Sabine Roeser (TU Delft) og Isabelle Stengers (Université Libre de Bruxelles).

The journal publishes contributions in English, German and French, and within all areas of philosophy.

Articles should normally not exceed 20 pages of 400 words, i.e. 8000 words. Articles exceeding this limit may be accepted, however, if it is considered that their length is appropriate to their topic, and if they are found to be of sufficiently high quality.

Article manuscripts submitted to the journal must be refereed by a qualified international reviewer. Upon submission, please suggest three possibilities and provide links to their institutional homepages.