Guest editors: Catherine Dromelet and Willem Lemmens (both University of Antwerp)
What is #philosophy? How does a philosopher proceed and what goals do they pursue? How do they distinguish between good and bad philosophy? Being interested in such questions is sometimes labeled as metaphilosophy. Recent publications on metaphilosophy are essential references when it comes to these questions. The prevailing tendency in these and related contributions is to address methodological and systematic problems relevant in contemporary discourses, while the historical context of metaphilosophical issues is typically ignored (with few exceptions showing, for instance, historical affinities within the Marxist tradition). The present issue aims to address this hiatus. The meaning of the word ‘philosophy’ has undergone profound transformations over time. What we consider ‘modern science’, for instance, emerged in early modern times within the bounds of what was then considered ‘philosophy’. Similarly, ‘experimental philosophy’ had a specific meaning in the early modern period: it came close to what we would call ‘empirical science’, but today the latter means largely an empirical survey of conceptual intuitions, while the former has now a very different meaning for several contemporary philosophers. These are just conspicuous illustrations of how the meaning of the word ‘philosophy’ has been changing over time. The special issue ‘Metaphilosophy in History’ aims at surveying the most significant changes in the self-conception of philosophy and at introducing historical insights and considerations into contemporary discourses on metaphilosophy. It provides an opportunity to focus on specific authors and schools of thought, to highlight distinctive aspects and phases in the evolution of the self-understanding of philosophy. So, while much of metaphilosophical work so far has been concerned with systematic issues, our aim is (1) to provide a historical perspective on metaphilosophical enterprises through a reconstruction of the self-conception of philosophy up to the very recent past, and (2) to infuse contemporary problems of metaphilosophy with historical consciousness and sensitivity.
For this special issue of History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis we are looking for articles (up to 10.000 words) that seek to provide a new, diversified outlook on historically informed metaphilosophy, based on in-depth original research. The questions that we are interested in include: Did metaphilosophy play any important role in the past philosophers' agenda? If they held metaphilosophical views, did their philosophical practice follow them? Was there more agreement on the metaphilosophical level than in the argumentative practice, or vice versa? Papers should focus on specific historical figures, presenting their case as illustrative of a more general tendency or movement. This is less pressing in the case of very central figures like #Aristotle, #Hegel, #Wittgenstein, etc., but it is desirable in the case of less influential authors.
Submission deadline:
The articles will appear in HPLA 27.1 (2024)
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