Call for papers for Tetsugaku vol.9
2025.08.06
Call for Papers: Special Issue of Tetsugaku – International Journal of the Philosophical Association of Japan on “Philosophy and Orality” [Open for Submissions]
Tetsugaku – International Journal (e-journal) of the Philosophical Association of Japan, calls for papers for the special issue, “Philosophy and Orality” (Vol. 9, 2026)
Recently, the conditions on which philosophy has been underpinned for centuries are becoming increasingly unstable. In particular in the 19th and 20th centuries, philosophy was shaped by the format of print technology and the exchange of ideas through books. However, this form is now undergoing a drastic decline due to the rapid expansion of digital media.
It is essential to adopt a long-term perspective in order to foresee how philosophy may transform in response to the changing conditions of its practice. The theses of scholars such as Walter Ong, Eric Havelock, and Marshall McLuhan can be useful in this regard. They argue that philosophy is a product of a specific mode of thinking made possible by the introduction of writing systems into human society. In other words, “philosophy” has traditionally been understood as the pursuit of truth through abstract, critical, and universal thinking—a kind of thinking that requires a certain distance from the immediate, context-bound nature of oral communication.
Recently, however, philosophers have begun to pay attention to the potential insights offered by cognitive agents who do not rely on writing systems—such as children or speakers of some indigenous and oral (unwritten) languages. There is also growing interest in the rich significance of thought embedded in oral traditions and the arts, which have persisted even after the advent of writing systems.
From a philosophical perspective, many important questions arise. For example: Can the thinking of such agents be considered philosophy in itself? Or, if that is not the case, how can philosophy be enriched through dialogue with those outside of its traditional bounds? What impact might the exchange with orality have on the content and structure of philosophical thought?
Diverse discussions from a variety of standpoints are encouraged and welcome.
[Original Deadline: 31 December 2025]- [New Deadline: 31 May 2026]
- *Deadline Extended
To submit your paper, please carefully read our Guidelines for Contributors.
Submission guidelines are available at: https://philosophy-japan.org/en/international_journal/guideline-2/Past Issues (Archive)
Call for Papers: Special Issue of Tetsugaku on “World Philosophy” (Vol. 8, 2024) [Closed]
“World Philosophy” is said to be a philosophical standpoint on the basis of the pluralism. This expression came into use largely in the 21th century. We know, for example, that The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy was published in 2011（ed. Jay Garfield and William Edelglass, New York: Oxford University Press). In recent years, philosophical research of non-Western origin is developing, so that World philosophy can be considered as a position that promotes the possibility of dialogue between these different philosophies, as they developed respectively within their own traditions, languages and cultures. We need to actively explore this kind of World Philosophy. For the 2022 World Philosophy Day, UNESCO proposed the following: “By enabling to discover the diversity of the intellectual currents in the world, philosophy stimulates intercultural dialogue. By awakening minds to the exercise of thinking and the reasoned confrontation of opinions, philosophy helps to build a more tolerant, more respectful society”. https://www.unesco.org/en/days/philosophy In basic agreement with UNESCO’s idea this special issue of Tetsugaku would like to suggest the following four basic notions as a call for research as well as practice of World philosophy.- World philosophy is not an established idea or field, but a platform where we will discuss and construct movements.
- We will reorganize culturally and regionally the field of philosophy which has been conceived as “Western based philosophy” by going beyond this.
- World philosophy attempts to re-read the established notions of World literature and World history which have been based on the notion that “science = Western science”.
- Reconsider the established philosophy.
- What is World Philosophy?
- What contribution does World Philosophy make?
- How does one pursue a pluralistic philosophy that breaks away from a focus on Western Europe and North America (Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Native American, Japan, Korea, China etc.)?
- How does World Philosophy challenge contemporary social and cultural issues (life, environment, war, crisis, epidemic, intolerance, economic disparity, gender)?
- How do we think about the traditional philosophical framework (religion, science, art)?
- How can World Philosophy be conceived in terms of translation and language?
Call for Papers: Special Issue of Tetsugaku on “Philosophical Practice” (Vol. 7, 2023) [Closed]
In Japan, the term “Philosophical Practice” is used as an umbrella term based on Matthew Lipman’s Philosophy for/with Children (1970s) in conjunction with Gerd Achenbach’s Philosophical Counseling (1980s) and Marc Sautet’s Socrates Cafe (1990s). They are activities that have different historical roots, theoretical background and aims, but what they share in common is that all of them are focusing on non-experts’ engagement in philosophical activity. Since the beginning of this century, we have been witnessing a growth of philosophical practice across Japan especially in the field of education and civil society, conducted in various forms including philosophical inquiry in school and philosophy cafés, etc. Echoed by such growing public recognition of philosophical practice, the Japanese Society for Philosophical Practice was established in 2018 to further the movement of philosophical practice in Japan. Broadly construed, philosophical practice is a philosophical and communicative practice going beyond the boundary between experts/non-experts in philosophy, where people (including philosophers, academics, non-academics, children etc.) jointly engage in dialogical activity for inquiring into their common question. In philosophical practice, people are treated as equals before the question they are investigating. These practices are philosophical “practice” often conducted by people with no academic philosophy background. Viewed in this light, however, what is the meaning of “philosophy” in the context of the “philosophical” practice? Thinking about philosophical practice inevitably requires us to engage in a self-reflective inquiry on what philosophy is and ought to be, thereby enabling us to delineate the contour of philosophy. In the incoming special issue on “philosophy of philosophical practice”, we welcome a wide range of contributions to the field of philosophical practice. The foci of the special issue include, but are not limited to:- What is philosophical practice and what is not?
- Who is the philosophical practice for?
- Can non-academic philosophers or children do philosophy?
- In what sense can philosophical practice produce a caring and therapeutic effect?
- What is the professionality of philosopher and/or philosophical practitioner?
- What is the ethics of philosophical practice?
- What are the roles of academic philosophers in a philosophical inquiry?
- What is the relationship between dialogue and philosophy?
- How can philosophy of dialogue relate to philosophical dialogue? (Buber, Levinas)
- How can/should philosophy relate to civil society?
- How can/should philosophy contribute to education?
- How can philosophical practice contribute to consensus/dissensus making in the public sphere?
- How inclusive can philosophical practice be?
- Can philosophical practice take up the voices of the minorities?
- Is philosophical practice possible in an unusual and/or deeply divided situation?
- What is the mission of philosophical practice in global society?
- What is the role of philosophical practice amid catastrophes, pandemic, and Anthropocene?
Call for Papers: Special Issue of Tetsugaku on “Philosophy of Catastrophe” (Vol. 6, 2022) [Closed]
“Catastrophe” has ceased to be an object of speculative concern about the end of the world, and instead concerns such events that we witness in our ordinary life and on a worldwide scale, from natural disasters such as earthquakes, drought or inundations, to industrial disasters or other types of crises like the pandemic, climate change, etc. What kind of philosophical reflections are possible for, or required by these events? How can we, warn, prevent, or at least understand such risks? Or should we start by asking “what is Catastrophe itself”? On the other hand, we may say without exaggeration that the history of philosophy is not unrelated to these concerns. Modern western philosophy is said to have begun with the Lisbon Earthquake (1755). From then on, revolutions, exile, world war, extermination camps and nuclear disasters constantly appear throughout the books of philosophers, without even mentioning the “end” inevitable for every one — “death”. We have already some reflections of a Philosophy of “Auschwitz”, or of “Hiroshima” or of “Fukushima”, but now, with COVID-19, it might be no longer be necessary to specify a location and a time, since catastrophe can come anywhere and anytime, Furthermore, it is probable that technological innovation, especially AI and tele-technology, adds some new aspects to what we used to call Catastrophe. The themes that this special issue covers are as follows (non-exhaustive):- History of the concept of catastrophe / disaster / accident
- Philosophical analysis of the concept of catastrophe / disaster / accident
- Philosophical reflections on concrete catastrophic events (natural disaster, industrial disaster, pandemic, climate crisis etc.)
- Philosophy of the nuclear (weapon or power plants)
- Ethics in the age of catastrophes
- Precautionary principle
- Technology and catastrophe
- The End of the world
Call for Papers: Special Issue of Tetsugaku on “Philosophy of Care” (Vol. 5, 2021) [Closed]
Philosophy of care was initially proposed by nursing practitioners to grasp their own attitudes in their practices in the 1960s, when paternalism was first being discussed. This line of thought respects the patient’s self-decision, and the issues quickly become complicated. Nurses and medical practitioners face the needs and wants of patients whose capacity of consent is limited. They have strived to establish their own guidelines of care according to their choice among a wide range of moral views. Moreover, consideration of the vulnerable must be included in the deliberation. Thus, the special issue covers the following themes (non-exhaustive):- Philosophy of nursing
- Philosophy of restorative justice
- Productivity and successful aging
- Phenomenological approach to care
- Philosophy of narratives
- Philosophy of Disaster / War and displacement
- Feminist ethics / Ethics and care in business
- Ethical concerns on care using artificial intelligence
- Enhancement vs normalization
- Philosophical analysis of participatory research
Call for papers for Tetsugaku Vol. 4, 2020: “Analytic Asian Philosophy” [Closed]
Analytic Asian Philosophy is the emerging filed of philosophy that tries to shed fresh light on Asian philosophy, classical and modern, from perspectives of analytic and other contemporary philosophy, and to create novel philosophical views on the world and ourselves in the age of globalization.- Reinterpretations of Asian philosophy from perspectives of analytic philosophy
- Original works inspired by Asian philosophy in the analytic style
- Contemporary logical reconstruction of Asian logic (Indian, Buddhistic, etc.)
- Contemporary linguistic reinterpretation of Asian theories of languages
Call for papers for Tetsugaku Vol. 3, 2019: “Japanese Philosophy” [Closed]
In this special issue, we wish to highlight this energetic global academic environment for research in Japanese philosophy, drawing attention to some of the latest work that is now taking place. Please consider submitting papers which engage in the following topics:- Japanese Philosophy of the Meiji and Taishō periods
- Historical investigations into Japanese philosophy
- Philosophy of the Kyoto School
- Japanese philosophy and war, ideology
- Comparative research – Japanese philosophy and East Asian/Western philosophy
- Investigations into language, culture, art, body, technology, and logic in Japanese philosophy
