[PHILOS-L] CFP: Special Issue on Fate and narrative identity

[Kalin Pak]

CAUTION: This email originated outside of the University. Do not click links unless you can verify the source of this email and know the content is safe. Check sender address, hover over URLs, and don't open suspicious email attachments.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue of The Journal of Ethics: Fate and narrative identity

Special Issue Editors:

• Katrien Schaubroeck, University of Antwerp, Belgium.

katrien.s...@uantwerpen.be

• Christopher Cowley, Charles University, Czechia.

Christoph...@ff.cuni.cz

This special issue starts with the autobiographical question: who am I? What are the most

important constituents of my identity? We might distinguish involuntary components such as

my birth nationality, my ethnicity, by socio-economic background, my gender, from voluntary

components such as my profession, my marriage, my political allegiance, my long-term

residence. But even involuntary components admit of more-or-less voluntary interpretations

of the meaning of such components. An ethnic identity can yield a sense of belonging or

indifference, an unwanted constraint can be changed into a catalyst for important life

choices.

Voluntary identity components and voluntary interpretations usually admit of a narrative

description of how they came to play the important role in my identity, and of how I see their

role in the future. As part of that narrative description, I might ask myself which components

are somehow essential to who I am – in other words, without that component, I cannot

imagine being me. Most often these components will begin their narrative role with an event of

pure luck. In such a case, I may be tempted to speak of that event as fateful. So this special

issue is about the question: what does it mean to see a narrative identity component as 'my

fate'? What can the concept of fate contribute to my and others’ understanding of my life?

Importantly, we are NOT directly interested in the concept of fate as denying free will. We are

not directly interested in any kind of metaphysical notion, divine or otherwise, that might

determine my future. Instead, our autobiographical perspective is primarily about making

sense of our past and present, in the sense described by Robert Solomon’s article ‘Fate and

Fatalism’ Philosophy East and West, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Oct., 2003), pp. 435-454.

Solomon offers many examples. He himself, a professional philosopher, started at university

studying medicine, and on an impulse took a philosophy elective that steered him into a

whole new area of interest. He wants to call the impulse fateful. Now it might be said that

given his (known and unknown) dispositions, he was fated to switch to philosophy sooner or

later, and if he had missed this one elective, other opportunities would have caught his eye. As

such we might reach for Heraclitus’s mantra of “character is destiny”. But consider another of

Solomon’s examples: two people have been married to one another for many years, and as

such have deeply influenced one another’s identity. And yet their meeting, their subsequent

romantic availability, their mutual attraction, their cohabitational compatibility, their shared

interests etc. – all of that was radically contingent. Retrospectively, however, that meeting

(and everything else) was necessary, fated, in order for them to become who they are now,

individually, and jointly, many years later.

We’re not only interested in Solomon’s retrospective view of fateful events, we’re also

interested in the experience of practical necessity (a phrase coined by Bernard Williams in his

1981 article of that name). Here the agent, in the present, discovers what she ‘must’ do, given

who she is, what she has become, what roles she fills, who she is in a relationship with, where

she works etc.. Such a discovery about oneself may be more or less surprising, and more or

less acceptable and understandable among one’s friends (who know her more or less well).

Williams’s concept has spawned some philosophical discussion, but his and others’ heroes

do not usually use the word ‘fate’ – the question is whether they are entitled to do so, while

taking themselves and being taken seriously.

We welcome submissions on the following topics: (not exhaustive)

- Narrative identity, involuntary events and meaning making

- Practical or volitional necessities as expressions of fate

- Is character destiny?

- The relationship between authenticity and fate.

- Was Solomon’s ‘naughty boy’ doomed to become a ‘hardened criminal’?

- How much do I choose my vocation?

- Could Marlon Brando have been a contender (in the film The Waterfront)?

- Can I regret important identity-conferring decisions in the distant past, given

who I have become now?

- What is the relationship between fate and moral luck?

Submission instructions for Authors

Deadline: 1 January 2027

Length: between 8000 and 11 000 words

Authors must make use of the standard online EM system used by The Journal of Ethics. All

manuscripts will go through the standard double-blind peer-review process according to The

Journal of Ethics’ guidelines. As a matter of general policy on special issues, all submission will

also be checked by the editor-in-chief. All manuscripts should be prepared according to the

journal’s submission guidelines provided on The Journal of Ethics website.

Any questions with regard to this Special Issue, please address one of the co-editors, with the email

addresses at the top of this page.

Philos-L "The Liverpool List" is run by the Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/ Messages to the list are archived at http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html. Recent posts can also be read in a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/PhilosL/ Follow the list on Twitter @PhilosL. Follow the Department of Philosophy @LiverpoolPhilos To sign off the list send a blank message to philos-l-unsub...@liverpool.ac.uk.