Call for papers (conference): 'Nature, Thinking: From Romanticism and Idealism to Ecological Philosophy' July 2024, Liverpool Hope, UK
ISHPSS
From: Steven Shakespeare
CALL FOR PAPERS
Nature, Thinking
From Romanticism and Idealism to Ecological Philosophy
The Association for Continental Philosophy of Religion international conference
Date and venue
July 9-11 2024, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Confirmed keynotes:
Dr Charlotte Alderwick (University of the West of England): ‘Constructing an environmental ethics from Schelling's Naturphilosophie’
Prof Simon P. James (Durham): ‘Is anything natural?’
Dr Danielle Sands and Prof Dan Whistler - joint keynotes (Royal Holloway): Title to be confirmed
Dr Patricia Vieira (Coimbra): ‘Zoophytographic Thinking from the Amazon’
Conference description
What might a contemporary philosophy of – or from – nature look like? What can we learn from the most fertile period of ‘naturephilosophy’: the Romantic and early idealist years of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century? How have the after-effects of this period resonated and mutated through the intervening years? What fresh possibilities arise from thinking with/against its key insights?
Recent years have seen renewed interest in Romantic and Idealist thought. It speaks to pressing concerns about how we rethink human existence and agency in a time of ecological change and catastrophe. It presses us to question the dualisms of mind and matter which have arguably contributed to the subjugation of nature. Its rediscovery has been a key influence on the renewal of speculative thought in our day, which has similarly challenged the primacy given to questions of epistemology and the privilege given to the human perspective in philosophy. Equally, it prompts us to re-read phenomenological and existential thought in ways that take seriously how they break the hold of a narrowly subjectivist, Cartesian standpoint. All these issues invoke the question of metaphysical grounding, of nature as unconditioned, of final causes – and so of the contested relationship between nature and religion.
In this context, our conference invites contributions which seek creatively and imaginatively to rethink philosophy’s relationship to nature, taking Romanticism and naturephilosophy as their stimulant (but not necessarily as their sole focus or goal).
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
· Re-reading Romantic/naturephilosophical texts in the light of contemporary ecological concerns, including their intersection with issues of race, colonisation, capital and gender.
· Bringing Romanticism/idealism into dialogue with contemporary speculative philosophy around questions of nature, ecology and the other-than-human.
· Engaging with Romantic and idealist challenges to the boundaries between mind and matter, life and death, philosophy and science.
· Critically re-evaluating the afterlife of Romantic and idealist thought about nature, for example in the existential and phenomenological traditions of the twentieth century.
· Reassessing the ultimate metaphysical and religious stakes of Romantic/naturephilosophical thought.
· New speculative and/or phenomenological paths in ecological philosophy.
Submissions
Please send 200-300-word proposals to Steven Shakespeare at sha...@hope.ac.uk .
Proposals for panels are welcome: please provide a short overall rationale for the panel in addition to the individual paper proposals.
We also welcome proposals for creative research presentations that respond to the conference themes, including reflective readings of poetry and other modes of performance.
The deadline for submissions is Monday February 5th 2024.