We are glad to give notice that the Call for Papers of Il Pensiero on the topic On Criticism is open until November 9, 2020.

Editor: Massimo Adinolfi – Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”

Below you can find the text of the call and the terms for submission.

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The abundance of determinations, experiences, ways of thinking which can be traced back to and put under one of the luckiest words of modernity, “criticism”, could make it difficult to rigorously define its use, or at least to review its numerous declinations. To this obvious difficulty of the range of the horizon that should be explored a further complication arises: within the critique tradition of modernity (critique tradition: an oxymoron that is not felt as such anymore) it has become necessary to turn criticism into self-criticism, and to rethink constantly about its exercise. So at what point is criticism today? Is the posture of the philosopher still critical, and is it enough to be critics, in the most general meaning of this word, in order not to be metaphysical, not to be dogmatic, or even more radically, to think en philosophe? How can these two words, criticism and philosophy, be brought closer so that the one entirely covers the other, or so that there is a discrepancy, a difference, a gap? Today, in what fields can we and must we say, like Kant maintains in his Critique of Judgment, that criticism holds the place of theory? Does critique then mean, in philosophy, to surrender to a melancholic and powerful vein, or to keep the strictness and even the ruthlessness of differentiating?

«Il Pensiero» aims to gather essays around moments and personalities of modern and contemporary thinking that can help verify this relationship. It applies especially to Kant and to how the critical instance moves between idealism and romanticism, but it also applies to the way we are called to this magisterium, through neo-Kantism, phenomenology and existentialism. And it certainly applies to the Destruktion practised by such a huge part of philosophy during the last century. Furthermore, it applies to the political and social spheres, where critique reaches the point of becoming “critique of weapons”, and it applies to those spheres, like literary criticism and art criticism, where the enquiry into the meaning and purpose of criticism has been and still is extremely alive.

Being the field of research exceptionally wide, «Il Pensiero» will give priority to those essays that will better answer the question about whether and how to inherit this tradition.

Research papers should not exceed 45.000 characters, including spaces and notes and should be accompanied by an abstract in English of no more than 1500 characters and five keywords.

Deadline for submission: 9th November 2020

Answer to proposals: 30th January 2021

Expected release: March 2021

For more information please visit the website of the journal.