Call for Papers: New Perspectives on Phenomenology

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Check out this CfP from Ekstasis with a deadline of 30 September 2022. Guest Editor: Gabriel Barroso (Husserl Archives Leuven).

Call for Papers
Special Issue: “New Perspectives on Phenomenology”
Journal: Ekstasis
Guest Editor: Gabriel Barroso (University of Wuppertal; Husserl Archives Leuven)

Description:
According to Paul Ricœur’s famous definition, phenomenology can be characterized as the sum of Husserl’s work and the heresies issuing from it. Despite the polemical tone of this statement, it would be a mistake to consider it an orthodox view in defense of the integrity of Husserl’s philosophy against those who distorted its original meaning. Rather, what Ricœur has in mind with the apparent tension between the philosophy expressed in the Husserlian corpus and its heretical reformulations is the openness that characterizes phenomenological research.
This openness is by no means alien to the founders of phenomenology. In Husserl, we find the well-known conception of phenomenology as an “infinite program”, which encompasses the intersubjective and intergenerational work of a community of researchers and transcends, by definition, its identification with the ideas of a single author. At the same time, although the harmonious view of a research program progressively carried out by generations of researchers seems to go against Heidegger’s account of phenomenology, it should be remembered that the author of Being and Time retained an essential aspect of the openness of phenomenology. For Heidegger, the idea of phenomenology does not consist in its actuality as a philosophical movement among others, but in its understanding as possibility. The historicity of phenomenological philosophy is a consequence of this openness to possibility, which is why, as argued in the Natorp-Bericht, the philosophical question itself has a historical character. The possibility of effect of a past philosophy is not based primarily on its results but rather on the concrete reformulation of the originality of its question, according to which such a philosophy is able to become once more present. Finally, it is precisely the link between the philosophy of the past and its necessary retrieval in the present that leads Merleau-Ponty to begin his Phenomenology of Perception with the question: “What is phenomenology?”
The essential openness of phenomenology implies the necessity of its constant reformulation. In recent years, it has opened the way for a series of philosophical projects that, even though essentially linked to the founding tradition of phenomenology, transcend internal divisions looking for a renewal of phenomenology as such. According to that, the renewal of the transcendental in phenomenology and its distinction from classical transcendental philosophy becomes an important research topic, as well as the consequences of this new understanding for the concept of experience. Furthermore, by following a tendency already pointed out by Eugen Fink regarding the limits of intentional analysis, phenomenologists have been trying to elaborate a phenomenological metaphysics and clarify its connection with speculative philosophy. The phenomenological project also takes the impulse received from the discussion with different contemporary philosophical positions, such as naturalism and new realism. Finally, the transformation of the relationship between the transcendental and the empirical, between ontological and ontic, demands a reappraisal of phenomenology given its interaction with the natural sciences, psychology, and anthropology. These multiple trends have in common the fact that, while they point to different ways of revitalizing phenomenology, they are all equally committed to the reflection on its very concept.
In light of this recent renewal of the phenomenological project and its tradition, Ekstasis’ Special Issue “New Perspectives on Phenomenology” invites researchers on the subject to submit their contributions to a new reading of phenomenology in the context of contemporary philosophy. The main objective of this issue is to contribute to the discussion and dissemination of new horizons in phenomenology, going beyond the historiographical reconstruction of specific authors. In other words, it aims at recovering the essential openness of phenomenological philosophy through the understanding of its contemporary venues and the discussions with other current philosophical positions, in order to revitalize the concept of phenomenology itself.

Appropriate topics for submission:

  1. The originality of the phenomenological concept of the transcendental
  2. The possibility of phenomenological metaphysics
  3. Speculative philosophy and phenomenology
  4. The debate between phenomenology and new realism
  5. The new French phenomenology
  6. Repercussions of psychology and anthropology on phenomenological philosophy
  7. Possibility and limits of the naturalization of phenomenology
  8. Phenomenology and deconstruction

Papers that address other, although similar, research questions are also welcomed.
Papers should be submitted by September 30, 2022. Manuscripts must be adjusted to the Ekstasis guidelines for authors.
Expected date of publication: December 2022
Manuscripts are to be submitted through the website of the Journal.