We are glad to announce that a Call for Abstracts for the International Conference “The Concept of Will in Classical German Philosophy” is open. The Conference will be held at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich on November 24th and 25th, 2017.

Submission deadline: August 1, 2017

Notification of acceptance by August 15, 2017

Organized by Dr. Manja Kisner and Dr. Jörg Noller

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Prof. Dr. Sorin Baiasu (Keele University)

Prof. Dr. Günter Zöller (LMU Munich)

Below the text of the call:

During the period of Classical German Philosophy, the concept of the will undergoes important transformations. While Kant identifies the will with pure practical reason, Fichte introduces, in the wake of Reinhold, an originally biological concept of drive into his ethical theory, thereby expanding on the Kantian notion of the will. Schelling and Schopenhauer take a step further and comprehend the will either as a primal being (Schelling) or as a blindly striving, non-rational force (Schopenhauer). Thus, the history of the will is marked by a complex set of tensions between rational and non-rational aspects of practical volition.

The aim of this conference is to look into this development and to inquire into the relation between the will and the related concepts such as “practical reason”, “drive”, “incentive”, “choice”, “lower and higher appetitive faculty”, “decision”, “intelligible deed”, and “action”. Contributions on philosophers such as Kant, Reinhold, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, as well as lesser known figures of the Aetas Kantiana are welcome.

Papers should address one or more of the following questions:

– How is the concept of the will related to the concept of (practical) reason and understanding?

– How is the concept of the will related to the concept of drive and striving?

– How does the concept of will contribute to a theory of (practical) subjectivity?

– How is the will determined in order to be free?

– How is the will motivated to lead to a morally good action?

The conference language will be English. Presentation time will be 25 minutes + 15 minutes for discussion.

Abstracts (of no more than 500 words) should be sent as PDF files as attachment to manjakisner@gmail.com and joerg.noller@lrz.uni-muenchen.de.

Abstracts should be prepared for double-blind review by removing any identification details. The author’s name, paper title and affiliation should be included in the body of the e-mail.

The presented papers will be considered for publication in a collected volume.