Internationale Zeitschrift für philosophische Anthropologie / International Journal for Philosophical Anthropology
Theoretical approaches of the social sciences and cultural studies always build an image of »human«. Far from laying this image out in the open, for theories today it is both an implicit basis and the unbeloved skeleton in the closet. Retreating to the »historical a priori« and the »disappearance of the human« creates a controversial vacuum in the thinking of/about the term »human«. Alongside the theoretical qualms of the social sciences and cultural studies, the »life sciences« operate with a rigid idea of the human. They draft a new, triumphal form of »human«, and depart from a previous positing of the human as a being halfway between angel and animal in their grand project of self-transposition unto a program of technical reproduction. These are new anthropologies, so to speak, and a renewed effort of thinking is needed that can reflexively incorporate these ‘strange’ anthropologies into theories of/about »human«—and by this incorporation, relate them to current possibilities of thinking and sociopolitical trends, debates, strategies and events.
Anthropologies have been booming since the 18th century, especially in the first third of the 20th century and also currently. As a possibility of thought they belong manifestly to modernity with its increased consciousness of contingency. In order to start as reflexively as possible, the complex theories of the 20th century might have critically to be rethought. The significance of every implicit or explicit anthropology has to be discussed. For man, this »wide, colored, diverse thing«, all »definitions fall somewhat short« (Max Scheler 1915).
[mensch] will be an »International journal for philosophical anthropology«. It does not limit itself to a single discipline or sub-discipline. The term »philosophical« designates the attempt to extend possibilities of reflection on a theory of/about »the human«, possibilities that traverse disciplines.
[mensch] wants to be a blank space in the landscape of current journals of philosophy, social sciences and cultural studies, a forum for thinking about »the human«.
Call
What we are looking for: [mensch] will systematically pool together philosophical, socio- and cultural scientific, as well as natural scientific perspectives on human. While it is a theoretical journal, it will not exclude empirical studies. All texts should ideally be astute and evoke “Aha!” moments. They should provide information about the elaborate, scientific thinking on “human” in various cultures, and discourses, bringing them together in a productive debate. The texts should be tantalizing, startling, accurate; thereby they might also – following the example of the first important German journal on philosophy, Kritisches Journal – sharply attack, they might polemicize if they bring forth good reasons. In other words, we want anything on the human – insofar it is philosophical, extensively, significant. Papers from all disciplines are welcome, asare those that do not fit neatly into disciplinary categories. Submissions should be first publications.
We search – permanent – sketches and ideas, as well as complete articles.
Project
[mensch] is a project of two junior researchers: Heike Delitz (Philosopher, Sociologist and Architect, Dresden) and Robert Seyfert (Philosopher and Sociologist, Konstanz).
We are already in contact with American, Chinese, German, French, and Italian junior researchers. Our aim is on the one hand to facilitate a broad collaboration among fascinating senior as well as junior researchers from various disciplines, and on the other hand to publish an international journal that convenes ideas and approaches from thinkers working in different languages, starting with those working in Chinese, English, French, German and Italian.
Editorial office
Bruno Accarino, Olaf Breidbach, Wolfgang Eßbach, Joachim Fischer, Volker Gerhardt, Christian F. R. Illies, Hans Werner Ingensiep, Jinji Hamauzu, Donna Haraway, Lenny Moss, Paul Rabinow, Gerard Raulet, Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, Thomas Rentsch, Javier San Martín, Walter Seitter, Hans Rainer Sepp, PeterSloterdijk, Jan Sokol, Christian Thies, Michael Tomasello, Bernhard Waldenfels, Cao Weidong, Franz Wuketits.
The journal is to appear as a peer reviewed journal; therefore we will find external (international and interdisciplinary) members for the editorial council, which shall include interesting junior researchers.
Frequency: The biannual journal will be published both in hardcopy and online. The online version will contain only the tables of content, contacts, abstracts, etc., but not the texts.
We plan to publish four to five full-text articles in each volume, research and conference reports, as well as reviews of literature that may at first seem remote to the subject at hand, but which for that very reason may be of interest with regards to our stipulated goals.
Conventions
ca. 15 Pages
citation in footnotes
bibliography at the end of the text
1 Henri Bergson: Schöpferische Entwicklung (frz. zuerst 1907). Übersetzt von Getrud Kantorowicz. Jena 1912.
2 Bergson: Schöpferische Entwicklung (wie Anm. 1), 12.
3 Bergson, Henri: Über den Pragmatismus von William James – Wahrheit und Wirklichkeit (1911). In: Ders.: Denken und schöpferisches Werden. Aufsätze und Vorträge. Übersetzt von Leonore Kottje. Meisenheim 1948, 234-245.
Download contact:
Heike Delitz
Universität Bamberg
Institut für Soziologie
Heike.Delitz[at] uni-bamberg.de
www.heike-delitz.de
Christian Illies
Lehrstuhl für Philosophie II
Universität Bamberg
christian.illies [at] uni-bamberg.de
homepage der Uni Bamberg
Robert Seyfert
Graduiertenkolleg »Die Figur des Dritten«
Universität Konstanz
Robert.Seyfert[at]uni-konstanz.de
www.robert-seyfert.de