cfp.english.upenn.edu

Papers are sought for a workshop on “Nietzschean Thinking” as part of the 12th Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI) in Ankara Turkey, Aug. 2-6, 2010. The topic of the conference is “Thought in Science and Fiction.” Workshops are four hourslong and consist of eight to ten papers.

Examining Nietzsche’s approach to scientific and literary
traditions of thought is particularly relevant at a time when
scientific knowledge continues to make inroads into areas of human culture once deemed the preserve of the humanistic disciplines. Developments in genetics, evolutionary biology, environmental science, physiology, and neuropsychology have radically increased science’s relevance to the study of topics as diverse as religious experience, empathy and emotion, language acquisition and cognition, social interaction, and cultural development. At the same time, scientists are increasingly aware of the ‘feedback loop’ between culture, body, and natural environment, such that scientific reductionism has become increasingly untenable. More than ever, the openness and plasticity of individual and cultural imagination is recognized as complementary to, rather than a refutation of, the latest developments in science and medicine.

In light of science’s increasing application to the disciplines of philosophy, cultural studies, religious studies, psychology, and anthropology, this workshop explores the relation between (and potential synthesis of) the scientific and imaginative dimensions of Nietzsche’s thought. The workshop also welcomes papers that explore the relevance of Nietzsche or Nietzschean approaches to problems in social, political, and
cultural life that raise issues of science and imagination. Therefore, papers that focus on Nietzsche’s work, as well as papers that apply a broadly Nietzschean approach to contemporary social and cultural issues, are welcome.

Submissions should be sent by email to Dr. Saul Tobias
(stobias@fullerton.edu) by Nov 1, 2009 and should comprise an approximately 500-word proposal and the author’s full contact details. Invited participants will be informed by the end of the calendar year. For conference description and complete details of this workshop (Section V) see: http://issei2010.haifa.ac.il