Fifteenth Annual Meeting of
The International Association for Environmental Philosophy
Philadelphia, Pa.
October 23-24, 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS
The International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP)invites paper proposals for its annual meeting to be held in Philadelphia at the Sheraton Society Hill on October 23-24, 2011, immediately following the 50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP).
Please send 1-2 page (single-spaced) proposals in Word format to IAEP Secretary Steven Vogel, vogel@denison.edu. Since individual and panel proposals are chosen through a process of blind review, each submission should contain two attachments: (1) A cover letter that provides detailed contact information (including physical and electronic addresses and academic affiliation) of the author(s). In addition, if you anticipate the need for audio/visual equipment should your submission be accepted please indicate exactly what will be required in this letter. (2) The proposal itself, without any identifying information as to the author(s). In the case of panel proposals, a description of the theme of the panel should be included as well as proposals for each of the papers in the panel.
The deadline for receipt of proposals is March 15th, 2011. Notice of decision will arrive by mid-May.
PRIZE FOR BEST GRADUATE STUDENT ESSAY:
An award of $100 will be awarded for the best essay submitted by a graduate student. If you wish to be considered for this award, please indicate this fact in your cover letter. Graduate students whose proposals are accepted for the conference will be asked to submit complete papers (of no more than 3000 words) by September 15th for award consideration. As before, papers must be submitted as attachments without identifying information. The winner will be announced during the
conference.
The International Association for Environmental Philosophy offers a forum for the philosophical discussion of our relation to the natural environment. Embracing a broad understanding of environmental philosophy, IAEP encourages papers in the areas of not only environmental ethics, but also environmental aesthetics, ontology,
theology, the philosophy of science, political philosophy, ecofeminism, the philosophy of technology, and the like. IAEP welcomes a diversity of approaches to issues in these areas, including those inspired by Continental philosophy, the history of philosophy, and the tradition of American philosophy.
For more information, please visit our website:
www.environmentalphilosophy.org
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
CFP: Temporal Environments
Temporal Environments: Rethinking Time and Ecology
Special Issue of the Journal of Environmental Philosophy
Editors: Jacob Metcalf (UC Santa Cruz) and Thom van Dooren (University of Technology, Sydney)
Place and space have received substantial attention in environmental philosophy in recent decades. Theorists from a variety of fields have proposed that reorienting our relationship to the non-human world requires reconsideration of ways of understanding and inhabiting spaces and places. Ecophenomenologists have argued that replacing meaningful places with abstract space was a critical moment in histories of environmental destruction, and environmental ethics will require re-imagining place as meaningful again. Bioregionalism has emphasized the need to rethink our places as ecological relationships, and inspired not only changes in academia, but also in environmental movements such as food localism. In a related vein, Val Plumwood has cautioned against too simplistic a notion of “one’s place”, critiquing the fracturing of place in which cherished homeplaces are able to be preserved only as a result of the destruction of less visible ‘shadow places’. In short, there is a broad assertion that reassessing our obligations to more-than-human worlds requires understanding place as more meaningful than an empty space to be filled by human concerns.
This special issue of the Journal of Environmental Philosophy will present a collection of articles that direct similar attention to the time and temporality of environments, a topic that has been relatively neglected by environmental philosophy and ethics. Although environmental ethicists have long discussed temporal issues, such as intergenerational justice, time has often been treated as an essentially linear and static container for human action. But if we conceive of time as produced, constructed, maintained, lived, multiple, and a more-than-human concern, the possibilities for environmental philosophy look dramatically different. This collection will offer such a framework for thinking through time and environment by exploring the multiple lived times present in global climate change, species extinction, the practices of ecological sciences, and the temporal fidelities of conservation and restoration.
Among the questions we hope this collection might explore are: What philosophical reconsiderations of time might be available and useful for other ecological disciplines? How does the pace of human life—markets, science, desires, consumption—impact our ability to imagine and produce livable futures? How might we remember different, and sometimes lost, ways of valuing human and nonhuman worlds in a way that does not fetishize the past but still holds it open as a resource for constructing better futures? How does an attentiveness to the scope of evolutionary time alter our sense of obligation in a time of massive biodiversity loss? How does the high-speed pace of much human life actually make it harder to change the conditions of those lives? How do humans and other animals learn to justly co-inhabit our sometimes very different temporalities? What ways of life are enabled or disabled by different temporal metaphors? What post-colonial temporalities are necessary for recuperation of cultural ecologies damaged by genocides and ecocides? Will sustainable ecologies require new models of temporality to reformulate growth, degrowth, and regrowth?
We invite submissions from environmental philosophers and other ecological scholars, including reflective pieces from natural and social scientists. Pieces that are grounded in specific cases of temporal environments are especially encouraged. We welcome pieces from international and native communities, and others not often represented in philosophy journals.
The Journal of Environmental Philosophy (http://ephilosophy.uoregon.edu/) is a peer-reviewed professional philosophy journal, and is the official journal of the International Association of Environmental Philosophy (IAEP). The Journal of Environmental Philosophy publishes innovative research relevant to all areas of environmental philosophy, including ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, theology, politics, ecofeminism, environmental justice, philosophy of technology, and ecophenomenology.
Target publication date: Spring 2012
Abstracts of 300-400 words, due by April 1, 2011
Papers due for review by August 1, 2011
There are no word count restrictions, but submissions are encouraged to aim for 6-8,000 words.
For further information or to submit abstracts, please contact Jacob Metcalf (jake.metcalf@gmail.com) or Thom van Dooren (thom.van.dooren@gmail.com).
Special Issue of the Journal of Environmental Philosophy
Editors: Jacob Metcalf (UC Santa Cruz) and Thom van Dooren (University of Technology, Sydney)
Place and space have received substantial attention in environmental philosophy in recent decades. Theorists from a variety of fields have proposed that reorienting our relationship to the non-human world requires reconsideration of ways of understanding and inhabiting spaces and places. Ecophenomenologists have argued that replacing meaningful places with abstract space was a critical moment in histories of environmental destruction, and environmental ethics will require re-imagining place as meaningful again. Bioregionalism has emphasized the need to rethink our places as ecological relationships, and inspired not only changes in academia, but also in environmental movements such as food localism. In a related vein, Val Plumwood has cautioned against too simplistic a notion of “one’s place”, critiquing the fracturing of place in which cherished homeplaces are able to be preserved only as a result of the destruction of less visible ‘shadow places’. In short, there is a broad assertion that reassessing our obligations to more-than-human worlds requires understanding place as more meaningful than an empty space to be filled by human concerns.
This special issue of the Journal of Environmental Philosophy will present a collection of articles that direct similar attention to the time and temporality of environments, a topic that has been relatively neglected by environmental philosophy and ethics. Although environmental ethicists have long discussed temporal issues, such as intergenerational justice, time has often been treated as an essentially linear and static container for human action. But if we conceive of time as produced, constructed, maintained, lived, multiple, and a more-than-human concern, the possibilities for environmental philosophy look dramatically different. This collection will offer such a framework for thinking through time and environment by exploring the multiple lived times present in global climate change, species extinction, the practices of ecological sciences, and the temporal fidelities of conservation and restoration.
Among the questions we hope this collection might explore are: What philosophical reconsiderations of time might be available and useful for other ecological disciplines? How does the pace of human life—markets, science, desires, consumption—impact our ability to imagine and produce livable futures? How might we remember different, and sometimes lost, ways of valuing human and nonhuman worlds in a way that does not fetishize the past but still holds it open as a resource for constructing better futures? How does an attentiveness to the scope of evolutionary time alter our sense of obligation in a time of massive biodiversity loss? How does the high-speed pace of much human life actually make it harder to change the conditions of those lives? How do humans and other animals learn to justly co-inhabit our sometimes very different temporalities? What ways of life are enabled or disabled by different temporal metaphors? What post-colonial temporalities are necessary for recuperation of cultural ecologies damaged by genocides and ecocides? Will sustainable ecologies require new models of temporality to reformulate growth, degrowth, and regrowth?
We invite submissions from environmental philosophers and other ecological scholars, including reflective pieces from natural and social scientists. Pieces that are grounded in specific cases of temporal environments are especially encouraged. We welcome pieces from international and native communities, and others not often represented in philosophy journals.
The Journal of Environmental Philosophy (http://ephilosophy.uoregon.edu/) is a peer-reviewed professional philosophy journal, and is the official journal of the International Association of Environmental Philosophy (IAEP). The Journal of Environmental Philosophy publishes innovative research relevant to all areas of environmental philosophy, including ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, theology, politics, ecofeminism, environmental justice, philosophy of technology, and ecophenomenology.
Target publication date: Spring 2012
Abstracts of 300-400 words, due by April 1, 2011
Papers due for review by August 1, 2011
There are no word count restrictions, but submissions are encouraged to aim for 6-8,000 words.
For further information or to submit abstracts, please contact Jacob Metcalf (jake.metcalf@gmail.com) or Thom van Dooren (thom.van.dooren@gmail.com).
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Zygon publishes biosemiotics essays
The latest issue of the journal Zygon, which publishes research on the religion and science dialogue, includes the second selection of essays of a two part series on biosemiotics and the religion and science debate. A number of essays in both parts discuss interpretation from a semiotic perspective, with a particular emphasis on C.S. Peirce.
From Zygon 45, no. 2 (June 2010)
INTRODUCTION: TOWARD A METAPHYSIC OF MEANING
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate
INTERPRETATION AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
Christopher Southgate, Andrew Robinson
SELECTION, INTERPRETATION, AND THE EMERGENCE OF LIVING SYSTEMS
Bruce H. Weber
A BIOSEMIOTIC APPROACH TO THE QUESTION OF MEANING
Jesper Hoffmeyer
PROCESS ECOLOGY: STEPPING STONES TO BIOSEMIOSIS
Robert E. Ulanowicz
DISCUSSION OF THE CONCEPTUAL BASIS OF BIOSEMIOTICS
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate, Terrence Deacon
From Zygon 45, no. 3 (September 2010)
GOD AND THE WORLD OF SIGNS: INTRODUCTION TO PART 2
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate
SEMIOTICS AS A METAPHYSICAL FRAMEWORK FOR CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate
TRANSFORMING THEOLOGICAL SYMBOLS
F. LeRon Shults
BROKEN SYMBOLS? RESPONSE TO F. LERON SHULTS
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate
TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF BOUNDARY
Jeremy T. Law
CRITICAL AFTERWORD
Philip Clayton
From Zygon 45, no. 2 (June 2010)
INTRODUCTION: TOWARD A METAPHYSIC OF MEANING
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate
INTERPRETATION AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
Christopher Southgate, Andrew Robinson
SELECTION, INTERPRETATION, AND THE EMERGENCE OF LIVING SYSTEMS
Bruce H. Weber
A BIOSEMIOTIC APPROACH TO THE QUESTION OF MEANING
Jesper Hoffmeyer
PROCESS ECOLOGY: STEPPING STONES TO BIOSEMIOSIS
Robert E. Ulanowicz
DISCUSSION OF THE CONCEPTUAL BASIS OF BIOSEMIOTICS
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate, Terrence Deacon
From Zygon 45, no. 3 (September 2010)
GOD AND THE WORLD OF SIGNS: INTRODUCTION TO PART 2
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate
SEMIOTICS AS A METAPHYSICAL FRAMEWORK FOR CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate
TRANSFORMING THEOLOGICAL SYMBOLS
F. LeRon Shults
BROKEN SYMBOLS? RESPONSE TO F. LERON SHULTS
Andrew Robinson, Christopher Southgate
TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF BOUNDARY
Jeremy T. Law
CRITICAL AFTERWORD
Philip Clayton
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Hermeneutics, Eco-Justice, and Indigenous Knowledge
An article just published advocates the use of eco-hermeneutics as a way of bringing place back into the development of curriculum. The authors argue that eco-hermeneutics finds deeper ways of understanding places beyond the walls of academia. The citation of the article is: Andrejs Kulnieks, Dan Roronhiakewen Longboat, and Kelly Young, "Re-Indigenizing Curriculum: An Eco-Hermeneutic Approach to Learning," AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Scholarship 6, no. 1 (2010): pp. 15-24. (go to journal website).
The way that the authors define "eco-hermeneutics" is spelled out in the first part of the essay. For them, one quality of eco-hermeneutics is that it acts as a corrective to the over-emphasis on written texts. Certainly, the aim of interpretation is to seek meaning, and the desire to seek meaning is found in language. But, the authors argue, meaning is also temporal--and this temporality moves us to recognize the importance of place in our quest for meaning. The academic tradition has neglected place and other forms of physically instantiated meaning by concentrating their hermeneutical investigations on written, disembodied language. In other words, unlike traditional hermeneutics, eco-hermeneutics places a priority on oral tradition, opening the door to see how indigenous knowledge can inform our understanding of place.
This critique of the written text is provocative, but also perhaps mistakes what can constitute "text" for philosophical hermeneutics. On the one hand, the authors make an important point in seeking to include local knowledge in the reading of place. This knowledge is not exclusively from contemporary science and technology. In that sense, the description that the authors provide of indigenous knowledge shows how we might approach place in more tentative, open ways--that is, in ways that allow for other perspectives and more environmentally friendly relationships.
On the other hand, the oral narratives (and indigenous knowledge more generally) that the authors point to are also "texts." Therefore it is perhaps extreme to assume that hermeneutics approaches written and oral texts differently. At the root of the authors' argument, then, is the recognition that we form a number of competing narratives of place and nature. Each of these is text, broadly construed. Even if it isn't "discourse fixed in writing" (Ricoeur), oral narratives do exhibit other forms of textuality. Hermeneutics is about more than printed texts: it is about the inevitable interpretion of life. The authors state, "Rather than depending solely upon its reconstruction through print-centred learning, eco-hermeneutics seeks to include interpretive experiential learning in this process of inquiry [into place]. These investigations include properly learning to tell and interpret stories that are indigenous to the places they live" (p. 17). I think we can say that philosophical hermeneutics itself must always be an "eco-hermeneutics" under this definition.
For the authors,eco-hermeneutics (based on indigenous traditions, the use of storytelling and environmental autobiography, and a new hermeneutic that asks the reader 'to develop an understanding of the physical, ecological, and bio-cultural aspects of the story..." {p. 18]) is needed to reform academic curriculum. They write, "Our concern here is for the importance of truth-telling and the revival of practices that seek to establish a relationship between language and place. As academics, educators and teachers, our responsibility is to revitalize the notion that stories and the understandings that they represent are for the benefit of everybody and everything that is of place" (p. 19). I would be interested to see how this informs not only environmental studies classes, but other endeavors in the academy.
Finally, for the authors this goal toward a better understanding of place is tied to the language of eco-justice. Eco-justice language offers the linguistic framework for this new hermeneutical account. I don't know of other attempts to explicitly tie the eco-justice movement to philosophical hermeneutics, but this seems to be a worthwhile conversation to begin.
The way that the authors define "eco-hermeneutics" is spelled out in the first part of the essay. For them, one quality of eco-hermeneutics is that it acts as a corrective to the over-emphasis on written texts. Certainly, the aim of interpretation is to seek meaning, and the desire to seek meaning is found in language. But, the authors argue, meaning is also temporal--and this temporality moves us to recognize the importance of place in our quest for meaning. The academic tradition has neglected place and other forms of physically instantiated meaning by concentrating their hermeneutical investigations on written, disembodied language. In other words, unlike traditional hermeneutics, eco-hermeneutics places a priority on oral tradition, opening the door to see how indigenous knowledge can inform our understanding of place.
This critique of the written text is provocative, but also perhaps mistakes what can constitute "text" for philosophical hermeneutics. On the one hand, the authors make an important point in seeking to include local knowledge in the reading of place. This knowledge is not exclusively from contemporary science and technology. In that sense, the description that the authors provide of indigenous knowledge shows how we might approach place in more tentative, open ways--that is, in ways that allow for other perspectives and more environmentally friendly relationships.
On the other hand, the oral narratives (and indigenous knowledge more generally) that the authors point to are also "texts." Therefore it is perhaps extreme to assume that hermeneutics approaches written and oral texts differently. At the root of the authors' argument, then, is the recognition that we form a number of competing narratives of place and nature. Each of these is text, broadly construed. Even if it isn't "discourse fixed in writing" (Ricoeur), oral narratives do exhibit other forms of textuality. Hermeneutics is about more than printed texts: it is about the inevitable interpretion of life. The authors state, "Rather than depending solely upon its reconstruction through print-centred learning, eco-hermeneutics seeks to include interpretive experiential learning in this process of inquiry [into place]. These investigations include properly learning to tell and interpret stories that are indigenous to the places they live" (p. 17). I think we can say that philosophical hermeneutics itself must always be an "eco-hermeneutics" under this definition.
For the authors,eco-hermeneutics (based on indigenous traditions, the use of storytelling and environmental autobiography, and a new hermeneutic that asks the reader 'to develop an understanding of the physical, ecological, and bio-cultural aspects of the story..." {p. 18]) is needed to reform academic curriculum. They write, "Our concern here is for the importance of truth-telling and the revival of practices that seek to establish a relationship between language and place. As academics, educators and teachers, our responsibility is to revitalize the notion that stories and the understandings that they represent are for the benefit of everybody and everything that is of place" (p. 19). I would be interested to see how this informs not only environmental studies classes, but other endeavors in the academy.
Finally, for the authors this goal toward a better understanding of place is tied to the language of eco-justice. Eco-justice language offers the linguistic framework for this new hermeneutical account. I don't know of other attempts to explicitly tie the eco-justice movement to philosophical hermeneutics, but this seems to be a worthwhile conversation to begin.
Friday, July 2, 2010
New Article on Ideology and Utopia
In the new issue of Environmental Philosophy (the journal of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy), an excellent article by Brian Treanor appears. Entitled "Turn Around and Step Forward: Ideology and Utopia in the Environmental Movement," (Environmental Philosophy 7 [2010]): 27-46) Treanor's argument explicates how Paul Ricoeur's work on the social imaginary--including the dialectic between ideology and utopia--can be fruitfully applied to environmental thought. These terms allow us to make a much stronger case for the need to move away from simply seeking technical fixes, and toward a shift in understanding.
Through his argument, Treanor shows the need for re-envisioning our social thinking about environments, rather than always relying on pragmatic compromise. Imagination is key here. In fact, I think imagination has been not been sufficiently dealt with in environmental philosophy, especially as a social--not simply individual--phenomenon. As a result, this essay is an important addition to environmental hermeneutics (and environmental philosophy more generally). It is also an excellent summation of this aspect of Ricoeur's thought; the portions related to Ricoeur would be profitable for philosophers, even if uninterested in the ecological dimensions Treanor is focused on.
Another reason this is a particularly useful and informative article is that Treanor applies his argument to two case studies. One case study is Shellenberger and Nordhoaus' thesis on "the death of environmentalism." The other is the work of David Brower.
Treanor is seeking to better analyze environmental thought, and thus push it forward. Here and elsewhere, he advocates a narrative approach. He tells us that a one sentence guideline would be: "Environmentalists should hold fast to a utopian vision of a sustainable future, articulated in compelling narratives, while remaining on alert for unconventional allies and unexpected opportunities for forwarding our agenda" (p. 40). I would recommend reading this article, to see exactly what he means.
Through his argument, Treanor shows the need for re-envisioning our social thinking about environments, rather than always relying on pragmatic compromise. Imagination is key here. In fact, I think imagination has been not been sufficiently dealt with in environmental philosophy, especially as a social--not simply individual--phenomenon. As a result, this essay is an important addition to environmental hermeneutics (and environmental philosophy more generally). It is also an excellent summation of this aspect of Ricoeur's thought; the portions related to Ricoeur would be profitable for philosophers, even if uninterested in the ecological dimensions Treanor is focused on.
Another reason this is a particularly useful and informative article is that Treanor applies his argument to two case studies. One case study is Shellenberger and Nordhoaus' thesis on "the death of environmentalism." The other is the work of David Brower.
Treanor is seeking to better analyze environmental thought, and thus push it forward. Here and elsewhere, he advocates a narrative approach. He tells us that a one sentence guideline would be: "Environmentalists should hold fast to a utopian vision of a sustainable future, articulated in compelling narratives, while remaining on alert for unconventional allies and unexpected opportunities for forwarding our agenda" (p. 40). I would recommend reading this article, to see exactly what he means.
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