Critical Philosophy for Cosmopolitan Justice and Perpetual Peace: Immanuel Kant 300th Anniversary Conference

The 300th anniversary of Immanuel Kant’s birth invites us to reappraise the fundamental contribution of his critical philosophy for the understanding of humanity’s final ends which are essentially ethical and juridical-political.

In this perspective, it is important to examine whether and how the Kantian critical philosophy reshapes the European philosophical tradition with new conceptual tools that allow us to redefine in a positive way the crucial notions of truth, goodness, justice and peace. We also hope that this conference will be an opportunity to apply critical philosophy to the current societal challenges that require both theoretical imagination and practical wisdom.

As announced in the title, the general topic of this event encompasses a very wide scope that may include more specific subjects for papers and panels that participants may consider when preparing their submissions, such as:

1. Universalism and Rationality in Kant’s Critical Philosophy

2. The Philosophy of International Law and Kantian Cosmopolitanism

3. The Legacy of Kantian Political and Legal Philosophy

4. The History of the Ideal of Perpetual Peace

5. Just War Doctrines and Critical Pacifism

6. Global Justice and Social Justice: Gender, Race and Socioeconomic Equality

7. The Justification and Promotion of Human Rights

8. Migrations, Refugees and Cosmopolitan Hospitality

9. Cosmopolitan Citizenship and World Governance

10. Political Challenges to Cosmopolitanism: Nationalism, Colonialism and Imperialism

11. Kantian Cosmology, Geography and Anthropology

12. Aesthetics and Philosophy of Nature, Life, Ecology and Biosphere

13. Environmental Ethics and Green Political Movements

14. Future Human Generations and Intergenerational Justice

These 14 topics are intended to provide us with a thematic structure that will be useful to organize the parallel sessions in a coherent way. Yet it is likely that some of these topics will be examined by several sessions, while others of them may attract less attention and will not be enough for a dedicated session. From a methodological standpoint, these topics can be treated in a systematic, genealogical or comparative manner. This means that papers that retrace the formation of Kantian ideas and analyze its direct or indirect sources, thus reconstructing their near or far conceptual genealogy are most welcome. Of equal importance and merit are papers dealing with the various types of reception, legacy or meta-critique of Kant’s philosophy, and thereby may provide insightful comparative interpretations, relating Kant with other authors from more or less different historical periods or cultural traditions.

All scholars are invited to submit abstracts for individual papers or group panels (i.e., sets of 3 or 4 papers with thematic cohesion). Every submission should include two separate MS-Word or pdf documents: one document with the title, abstract (300-500 words per paper), and keywords (4 or 5 terms), and another with a bio-bibliographical note (50-100 words).

Submissions may be written in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish, and should be sent to Fernando Silva (fernandomsilva@campus.ul.pt) and Paulo Jesus (paulorenatus@campus.ul.pt) by April 30th, 2024.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent via email by May 31st. In order to enhance broader understanding, participants whose papers are accepted in any language other than English are kindly requested to share at least a partial version of their text in English as a handout or a PowerPoint presentation. Every participant will have 20 minutes to read their paper. Every paper session is expected to include up to 4 papers and a period for discussion. Although we encourage in-person participation, the event will have a hybrid format.

Both participation and attendance are totally free of charge.