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Phenomenology, Axiology, and Metaethics
Special Issue of Phenomenology and Mind
Deadline for paper submissions: February 15th, 2022
The issue will be published in December 2022
Call for Papers
Today the philosophical debate on values and their possible experience is still one of the most crucial to engage with. This is not just because of the ethical, social or political upshots it can possibly have, but also because of the theoretical issues it posits, which still need to be deeply investigated. Such an investigation is perhaps particularly required on the side of phenomenology. Indeed, even though classic phenomenologists such as Husserl, Scheler, Stein, Ingarden, von Hildebrand and others have dedicated important works to these themes, their heritage still needs to be explored and further developed, in particular to make a phenomenological discourse on axiology that can be fruitfully put in dialogue with other philosophical perspectives on the status of values, such as those developed and still discussed in the metaethical debate.
Against this background, the journal Phenomenology and Mind invites submissions for a special issue dedicated to “Phenomenology and Metaethics”. The volume will aim at providing phenomenological insights both on the noematic side of the issue, investigating the nature of axiological properties, and on the noetic side, focusing on the experience of such properties. In this context, a – non-exhaustive – list of possible questions to investigate is the following:
- What is the nature of axiological properties?
- What is the relation between axiological properties and natural ones?
- Can the relation between axiological properties and natural ones be accounted for in terms of phenomenological Fundierung? And what about accounting for them in terms of supervenience?
- How can we phenomenologically describe the relation between goods and values?
- Is it possible to develop an actual material axiology? What would it be like?
- How do we experience axiological properties?
- Can we account for the experience of axiological properties in perceptual terms?
- What is the role of intuition – if any – in the experience of axiological properties? How should intuition be conceived properly in this context?
- Is the experience of axiological properties a form of feeling? How should we describe it?
Guest Editors
Andrea Cimino (KU Leuven)
Dermot Moran (Boston College)
Andrea Staiti (University of Parma)
Submission Guidelines
Submissions must be prepared for double blind review. Manuscripts – in .doc format – should not contain any identifying information and must not exceed 6000 words (references included).
Moreover, they must contain:
- An abstract of no more than 150 words
- 4/5 keywords
All manuscripts must be in English
For stylistic details, see: http://www.rosenbergesellier.it/ita/riviste/phenomenology-and-mind/norme-redazionali;
Submissions should be sent via the Phenomenology and Mind website
(http://www.fupress.net/index.php/pam) by February 15th, 2022.
The author should register here and then log in to submit her paper. Please, be sure to submit your paper to the session “Phenomenology, Axiology, and Metaethics”
For information, please contact: andreasebastiano.staiti@unipr.it
Important dates:
Deadline for submissions: February 15th, 2022
Notification of acceptance: April 15th, 2022
Publication of the issue: December 2022
The True, the Valid and the Normative
Call for papers
The inquiry into the concepts of true and false has generally privileged, in contemporary philosophy, apophantic truth, that is, the truth of dicta (sentences, propositions, statements, or utterances). However, the predicates ‘true’ and ‘false’ seem to also apply to other entities apart from dicta. Amedeo Giovanni Conte, among others, brought back attention to the not infrequent cases where we speak of the truth and falsity of res, of things. In what sense, for instance, can we speak of true gold, a true diamond, a true warrior, or the true Kant? And in what sense can we speak of false gold, a false diamond, a false name, a false will, or a false banknote? Further, can we argue that a true warrior ought to be brave? The answer to such questions seems to imply the distinction introduced by Conte (2016) between two species of truth: de dicto, or semantic truth, which specifically pertains to a dictum qua dictum, and de re, or ontological truth, which generally pertains to a res qua res, to a thing qua thing. What are the relations between the two species of truth? What do they have in common, and in what do they differ?
The introduction of the distinction between de re and de dicto truth into the debate on normativity and related issues discloses new perspectives that participants in this School are invited to explore. What is at stake are, on the one hand, the nature and scope of de dicto truth and de re truth respectively, along with their relations to one another; on the other hand, the possible impact of these two notions on the investigations on normativity and its sources, as well as on the notions of validity and effectiveness of norms.
When considering the issue of the scope of de dicto truth, one may ask whether de dicto truth is to be predicated exclusively of apophantic sentences or constative utterances (Austin 1950; 1962), or whether it can be predicated also of anapophantic sentences, such as performative sentences—which appear to be self-verifying. Given that a similar form of self-verification seems to be implied also in prescriptive sentences, what kind of facts, or states-of-affairs are brought about by such sentences? Is it possible to speak of “deontic states-of-affairs” (Conte 1970; 2006; see also Sbisà 2014 on deontic states and deontic objects)? What would be the implications for the investigation of the relations between truth and validity of norms? Notably, can the validity of norms—at least when norms are understood as prescriptive sentences—be conceived as a form of de dicto truth, that is, as the correspondence to a deontic reality? Is such a deontic reality to be understood exclusively as a product of prescriptive sentences, or is it also possible to conceive a pre-existent deontic reality? What would be the implications as to the possibility of applying logic to norms?
When considering the notion of de re truth, on the other hand, what can be its implications for the philosophy of the normative? Notably, is there a relation between de re truth and the normative and axiological dimensions of reality?
The fact that we call invalid banknotes “false” banknotes suggests, for instance, that at least in the domain of institutional phenomena the de re truth or falsity of an entity is directly linked to and conditioned by the very norms or constitutive rules that determine the validity conditions of that entity. Should we speak here of a “normative truth of things”? Can it be argued, conversely, that in other circumstances specific oughts or norms can be derived from the de re truth of an entity—like when we say that a true warrior ought to be brave, as suggested by Edmund Husserl (1900-1901)? Is this a further kind of normative truth of things? How does the concept of de re truth relate to the notion of “eidetic legality”? Can it be fruitful for the determination of the bonds and constraints that phenomena lay upon thought, language, action, and reality?
Warrior is also a good example of what scholars have recently called ‘dual character concepts’—concepts that encode both a descriptive dimension and an independent normative dimension for categorization (Knobe, Prasada, & Newman 2013; Leslie 2015; Reuter 2019). When is a person appropriately categorised as a true warrior? Can the notion of de re truth help us illuminate the normative dimension of dual character concepts?
A final aspect of the investigation of the relations between truth and normativity concerns the controversial notion of the effectiveness of norms. Some legal philosophers maintain that the existence of norms should be identified with their effectiveness within a social group, and that consequently an ineffective norm is not a de re true norm. Others suggest that satisfaction, or fulfilment, rather than validity, should be considered as the deontic análogon of de dicto truth in the logic of imperatives and norms. Both these perspectives, however, arouse the following question: are all norms capable of being fulfilled? For instance, a norm establishing that one’s legal capacity begins with birth does not seem to be fulfillable at all, since it does not prescribe any behaviour. Furthermore, does the fulfilment of a norm exhaust the possible ways in which a norm affects an agent’s behaviour? For instance, if we consider a poker cheater, aren’t the rules of poker, despite not being fulfilled, still operating and impacting on her/his behaviour when s/he hides an ace up his sleeve—as suggested by the notion of “nomotropic behaviour” introduced by Conte (2000; 2016)? How does the phenomenon of nomotropic behaviour relate to the notions of both de dicto and de re truth of norms?
Section 1. Truth of language vs. truth of things
- The truth of linguistic entities vs the truth of non-linguistic entities: what do de dicto (semantic) and de re (ontological) truth have in common? How do they differ?
- In what sense can an object (a res) be true? In what sense can it be false?
- What is the difference between ‘a true professor’ and ‘the true professor’? Can we speak of de re truth both in relation to the correspondence to an eîdos and the correspondence to an ídion?
- Are there true questions and true lies?
- What are the relations between the de dicto and de re truth (or falsity) of linguistic entities? Can the de dicto truth (or falsity) of a linguistic entity condition, or be conditioned, by its de re truth (or falsity)?
- Does the notion of de dicto truth boil down to apophantic truth, or anapophantic dicta can be de dicto true, too—as the self-verification of performatives suggests?
Section 2. Truth and validity
- Can de dicto (semantic) truth be predicated of norms? Do prescriptive sentences self-verify?
- Is there a deontic reality to which norms may truly correspond?
- Is the validity of norms the logical deontic análogon of the de dicto truth of apophantic propositions?
- Can the deontic validity of a norm be derived from the logical validity of an inference?
- In what sense the de re truth of an institutional entity may depend upon the rules or norms on its validity?
- Is an invalid norm still a de re true norm? What is the relation between de re truth, validity and existence of norms?
Section 3. Truth and the normative and axiological dimensions of reality
- What are the normative implications of de re truth?
- Can an ought be derived from the ontological truth of an entity?
- Is a true x a good x? Is ‘true’ an evaluative predicate?
- Can the notion of de re truth be fruitful for the investigation of dual character concepts?
- In what sense a token is a true or a false token of a type? In what sense a type is the true type of a class of tokens?
- What are the ontological conditions of the de re truth of an entity?
- How does the concept of de re truth relate to the notion of “eidetic legality” and to the bonds and constraints that phenomena lay upon thought, language, action, and reality?
Section 4. Truth and validity in action: norm effectiveness and nomotropic behaviour
- What are the relations between de re truth, validity and effectiveness of norms? Is an ineffective norm still a valid and de re true norm?
- Is the satisfaction or fulfilment of a norm the deontic análogon of the de dicto truth of propositions?
- Can a norm be verified by action?
- Does the effectiveness of norms boil down to fulfilment?
- Are there true norms that are incapable of being fulfilled?
- In what sense the behaviour of a thief or a cheater is still a “nomotropic behaviour”?
Submissions must be prepared for double-blind review. Manuscripts – in .doc format – should not contain any identifying information and they cannot exceed 4000 words (references included). Manuscripts must be written in English. Moreover, they must contain:
- an abstract of no more than 150 words;
- the indication of the section to which the author(s) wants to contribute;
- 4/5 keywords.
For stylistic details, see:
http://www.rosenbergesellier.it/eng/journals/phenomenology-and-mind/editorial-norms
Submissions should be sent via the Phenomenology and Mind website by May 31st, 2021.
Authors should register here and then log in to submit their paper. Please, make sure to submit your paper to the session “The True, the Valid and the Normative”.
For further information, please contact Paolo Di Lucia (paolo.dilucia@unimi.it) and/or Lorenzo Passerini Glazel (lorenzo.passerini@unimib.it).
Important dates:
Deadline for submissions: May 31st, 2022.
Notification of acceptance: July 31st, 2022.
San Raffaele School of Philosophy: September 20th–22nd, 2022.
Publication of the special issue (expected): June 2023
Back to the things themselves. The practice of phenomenology
Deadline for paper submissions: June 30th, 2023
The issue will be published in June 2024
Call for Papers
Our aim is to focus on the core task of phenomenology, i.e., the description of concrete phenomena. This means especially: We do not want historical or meta-theoretical contributions regarding phenomenology, nor the works of certain phenomenologists. By this we intend to showcase phenomenology as a specific practice of philosophy in an exemplary way.
Concrete descriptions of different phenomena should be developed, and their validity discussed – descriptions, which are phenomenological in a specific sense, because they fulfill two criteria: firstly, they refer to experiences as experiences from the first-person perspective and secondly, they claim to determine necessary characteristics for this kind of experience through eidetic variations. Regarding the selection of phenomena, the special issue pursues a great variety. In the selection of phenomena, this special issue of Phenomenology and Mind strives for the greatest possible breadth. Descriptions of classical phenomena like: perception, imagination, time, body, morality, feeling, gender, art, literature and image; but also attempts to discover phenomena as phenomena sui generis through phenomenological description: such as from the fields of sport and movement, work and everyday life, quarantine and disease, digitality and technology, drugs and addiction, violence and conflict, kitsch and fashion.
Guest Editors
Lambert Wiesing (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena)
Thomas Zingelmann (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena)
Submission Guidelines
Submissions must be prepared for double blind review. Manuscripts – in .doc format – should not contain any identifying information and must not exceed 6000 words (references included).
Moreover, they must contain:
- an abstract of no more than 150 words
- 4/5 keywords
All manuscripts must be in English or German
For stylistic details, see: http://www.rosenbergesellier.it/eng/journals/phenomenology-and-mind/editorial-norms;
Submissions should be sent via the Phenomenology and Mind website
(http://www.rosenbergesellier.it/eng/journals/phenomenology-and-mind) by June 30th, 2023.
The author should register here and then log in to submit her paper. Please, be sure to submit your paper to the session “Back to the things themselves. The practice of phenomenology”
For information, please contact: thomas.zingelmann@uni-jena.de
Important dates:
Deadline for submissions: June 30th, 2023
First notification: September 30th, 2023
Publication of the issue: June 2024
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