[PHILOS-L] Call For Papers: Conference on Kant, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi
Suresh Chauhan
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CALL FOR PAPERS
KANT, OUR CONTEMPORARY:
READING BEYOND THE TRICENTENARY
April 16–17, 2026 | Faculty of Arts
Organised by the Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi
Sponsored by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
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Andrew Chignell (Princeton University)
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Günter Zöller (LMU Munich)
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Calum Neill (Edinburgh Napier University)
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Nirmalangshu Mukherji (University of Delhi)
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Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty (Presidency University)
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Karin de Boer (KU Leuven)
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Manidipa Sanyal (University of Calcutta)
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Apaar Kumar (Ahmedabad University)
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Sanil V (IIT Delhi)
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Udaya Kumar (JNU)
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Ian Hunter (University of Queensland)
Throughout Kant’s philosophy one encounters enigmas and aporias that have long continued to trouble thinkers across generations and disciplines. The goal of this conference is to take a closer look at some of these concerns. By bringing together scholars and thinkers engaged in Kantian research today, the conference aims to take stock of the varied and eclectic trajectories that Kantian thinking has inaugurated and/or assumed over the past three centuries.
In Kant, the temptation to go beyond concepts remains persistent, as a pull of something pre-conceptual, pristinely given out-there. This is also accompanied by the realization that every attempt to confront the pre-structural or pre-conceptual is itself conceptual or structural. It is this duality that reverberates through Kant’s oscillation between sensibility and understanding: at every juncture Kant appears to be pushed off by the given, yet every such movement ultimately returns as a structural exercise.
The programme begins thus by investigating reason as both the object and the means of critique, a task that reappears in the practical and reflective domains through the analysis of action and judgement. This irresoluble tension between concept and post-concept lingers as a spectre throughout Kant’s thinking, spanning politics, ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, logic, mathematics, ecology, and natural sciences; informing debates in both analytical and continental philosophy; and entering into highly productive dialogues with Indian philosophical traditions.
Participation in the conference, therefore, attests to a desire to read Kant anew in light of all that has transpired in recent times and history. Such are the transcendental constraints and aspirations that the conference takes as its points of departure.
SUB-THEMES
We welcome original contributions (2000–3000 words) that engage with, but are not confined to, the following concerns:
Transcendental Epistemology and the Architecture of Cognition
(logic, schematism, imagination, self-consciousness, refutation of idealism, orientation in thinking, antinomies)
Space, Time, Mathematics, and the Conditions of Experience
(intuitionism, arithmetic, Kant–Leibniz debates, foundations of mathematical cognition)
Noumena, Conceptualism, and the Limits of Thought
(status of the noumenal, conceptualism debates, McDowell and contemporary epistemology)
Judgement, Aesthetics, and the Sublime
(aesthetic vs. moral judgement, reflective judgement, sublime, organism)
Ethics, Obligation, and Practical Reason
(categorical imperative, Levinasian readings, normativity, action, hope, despair)
Enlightenment, Politics, and History
(Enlightenment, revolution, perpetual peace, anthropology)
Post-Kantian Critiques and Transformations
(Hegelian critique, phenomenological and psychoanalytic interventions, Lyotard’s metanarrative critique, (post)structuralist accounts)
Transcultural and Indian Engagements with Kant
(K. C. Bhattacharya, Sundararajan’s “Second Copernican Turn,” Kant and Śaṅkara)
SUBMISSIONS
Research scholars are invited to submit paper abstracts of 250–300 words here for review:
Presentations are preferred in person and will be 15 minutes (plus 10 minutes for questions) each.
Travel and accommodation support are not available at the moment. Lunch, snacks, and tea will be covered on both days of the conference. There is no registration fee.
Selected papers may be considered for publication following the conference.
For queries:
kantconf...@gmail.com
Tentative Timeline
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Abstract deadline: 29 March 2026
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Notification of acceptance: 1 April 2026
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Full paper submission: 15 April 2026
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
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Prof. Enakshi Ray Mitra (Faculty & Head)
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Dr. Pragati Sahni (Faculty)
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Dr. Nilanjan Bhowmick (Faculty)
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Dr. Ayesha Gautam (Faculty)
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Balaji L (PhD Scholar)
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Sabdashwa Chakraborty (PhD Scholar)
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Abhishek (PhD Scholar)
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Vishrut Kumar Singh (PhD Scholar)
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Longjam Pilot Singh (PhD Scholar)
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Suresh Chauhan (MA Student)
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
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Prof. Balaganapathi Devarakonda (Faculty)
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Dr. Subasini Barik (Faculty, Deshbandhu College)
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