The journal Metaphilosophy invites papers from scholars to produce a special issue of the journal on Philosophy as a Way of Life. The special guest editors are James M. Ambury (jamesambury@kings.edu), Tushar Irani (tirani@wesleyan.edu), and Kathleen Wallace (kathleen.wallace@hofstra.edu).
The notion of philosophy as a way of life has roots in antiquity in the work of thinkers from a wide variety of cultural and intellectual traditions. For these thinkers, the practice of philosophy was not confined to the investigation of concepts and terms, but had the broader purpose of providing guidance on how to live. However, philosophical interest in providing guidance on how to live and on thinking of philosophy itself as a way of life has not been restricted to the ancient period or to western philosophical traditions. One finds such themes present in the work of modern and contemporary thinkers as well, and recently the topic has been revived as a subject of interest due to the work of a diverse range of scholars, including Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot, and John Cooper.
We invite papers that approach the topic of philosophy as a way of life under the following three categories, broadly construed:
- History: exploring some aspect of philosophy as a way of life in the history of philosophy, or from any historical period or tradition, or as reflected in the work of a figure or figures from the history of philosophy, both western and non-western
- Moral Philosophy: philosophical exploration and evaluation of recommendations and guidance offered by philosophers for how to live; we are especially interested in work that explores how such guidance is particularly philosophical or conduces (or not) to living a philosophical way of life, what that would be, why that would be a flourishing way to live (or not)
- Pedagogy: exploration, report, or evaluation of teaching philosophy as a way of life as a free-standing course, or a component of a course; under this general rubric we would also be interested in other avenues of communication or public outreach about philosophy as a way of life; while this is not our primary focus, we would like to include some work that addresses how philosophy as a way of life might inform or guide teaching and other communication more broadly about philosophy
Submissions will be evaluated on a blind-review basis and should be formatted accordingly. Papers should be no longer than 8,000 words, including notes, and should be submitted to metaphil@southernct.edu before July 1, 2019; include a separate file with your name, institutional affiliation, address and contact information, and paper title. In the subject heading of the email message of your submission, enter “PWOL special issue”. Follow the author guidelines (regarding abstract, reference format, etc.) for Metaphilosophy that can be found at here.