Call for Papers: Philosophy and Its Forms of Expression. History and Evolution.

Nos. 6-7 (December 2020)

The bi-annual journal P.O.I. – Points of Interest invites submissions from scholars in philosophy and related disciplines for its forthcoming volume. Submissions should address the proposed theme and should conform to the criteria and terms outlined below.

This double issue will be devoted to investigate how forms of expression of philosophical thought change according to authorial intents and philosophical/historical contexts. The adoption of different modus comunicandi is always the result of a well thought out choice made by the author in expressing a particular idea. In the ancient world, for example, we can already observe the use of different communication and dissemination strategies: from the centrality of stylistic expression in the Sophistic to the Platonic appeal to the dialogical form, up to the use of philosophical-theological treatises in late Neoplatonism and in early Christian age; in Modern age, then, when the Scientific Revolution will radically change philosophers’ approach to knowledge, there will be an increased awareness of the meaning and the importance of using different and specific forms of expression in relation to the expressed ideas (as it was, for example, for Descartes’ Meditationes de Prima Philosophia and for Spinoza’s Ethica more geometrico demonstrata); finally, in the last century, forms of expression such as epistolary correspondences, lectures and conferences have had great success. All these different approaches have now converged in various ways and in various forms in digital communication: the spread of philosophical thought via tools such as blogs, websites, video channels and video playlists has become common practice.

The issue aims to investigate the history of the forms of expression of philosophical thought, and more specifically of its dissemination in written form, with special attention to the “channels” of communication of philosophical knowledge and to the aim pursued by each author in preferring one style to another .

We welcome submissions on all topics related to the theme. For example:

  • Historical-philosophical reconstruction of the ways in which philosophical knowledge has been disseminated;
  • Philosophical analysis of the major forms of writing (e.g. structure and purpose of treatise / dialogue / epistle) and of the way in which the form essentially defines its content;
  • The influence that publishers have exercised in the history of western philosophy through the collection of works and / or notes by other authors (as is the case of Aristotle, Plotinus and Hegel);
  • Reflection on Contemporary forms of philosophical communication.

Guidelines and terms for submission:

  • Submissions should be preceded by an abstract of fewer than 2000-characters, including spaces (approximately 350-400 words), which will be pre-evaluated by the editorial staff for relevance to the CfP topic.
  • The deadline for receipt of abstracts is March 15, 2020. Communication of decisions regarding the outcome of submissions will take place after that date. Authors of accepted abstracts will then have until June 30, 2020 to submit the full version of their paper (20,000-60,000-characters, including spaces; approximately 3500-10,500 words) .
  • Contributions must be of original, unpublished work, and must not be under consideration by other journals.
  • Submissions in the following languages are accepted and will be considered: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish.
  • The journal employs double-blind peer review process; therefore, the author’s name and affiliation must appear only once in the paper (under the title). The full version of the paper should include an abstract (of max. 250 words, in English), and 5 keywords (in English).

Editorial guidelines can be found at the following webpage: http://poireview.com/en/editorial-guidelines/.

Submissions should be sent to the following address: redazione@poireview.com