Philosophical Quarterly launch 2012 Prize Essay Competition

The Philosophical Quarterly invites submissions for its 2012 international prize essay competition, the topic of which is ‘Philosophy and the Expressive Arts’.

The author of the winning entry will receive £1500. The closing date for submissions is 1st November 2012.

Download Submission Guidelines

From Plato on, philosophy has had an uneasy relationship with expressive arts such as narrative, poetry, drama, music, painting, and now film. If philosophy today can learn from science, can it learn from the arts as well– or even instead? If so, what can it learn?

Does expressive art access truths, particularly ethical truths, that cannot be expressed any other way? If it does, what can ethicists and other philosophers say about these truths? If it does not, what differentiates expressive from merely decorative art?

Some philosophers insist with Wittgenstein that “whatever can be said at all can be said clearly”. In that case, are artistic uses of language such as metaphor and imagery just “colour”, as Frege called it – just ways of dressing up thoughts that philosophers, by contrast, should consider in their plainest possible form?

 

 

The Future of Philosophy: By Tim Mulgan

The following opinion piece is one of a series of five being released this week and next to celebrate World Philosophy Day and to publicise the upcoming workshop entitled Editor’s Cut – A view of philosophical research from journal editors. the workshop will take place at the University of London on Friday 13th of January 2012.

The Future of Philosophy
By Tim Mulgan
Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy, University of St Andrews
Editor of The Philosophical Quarterly

In 1689, John Locke published two treatises on government. Locke’s Second Treatise is a staple of introductory political philosophy courses, pored over by generations of scholars and undergraduates. His First Treatise is barely read today. This differential treatment reflects neither the importance Locke himself attached to the two treatises, nor the comparative cogency of Locke’s arguments, but rather the contemporary relevance of his themes. Locke’s First Treatise attacks Robert Filmer’s defence of the divine right of kings. As events outside philosophy have rendered absolute monarchy irrelevant, so Filmer’s arguments – and thus Locke’s demolition of them – have faded from the philosophical canon.

To illustrate the role of historical contingencies here, consider the fact

The Philosophical Quarterly launch prize essay competition

The Philosophical Quarterly invites submissions for its 2011 international prize essay competition, the topic of which is ‘Hume after 300 Years’.

2011 marks the tercentenary of the birth of David Hume. Entries are invited on all aspects of Hume’s philosophy. Particularly welcome will be essays on relatively neglected parts of Hume’s corpus: for example, his theory of space and time; his typology of the passions; the Treatise account of political obligation; the first (1741-42) volumes of Essays, Moral and Political; the second Enquiry; the Four Dissertations.

Essays should not be longer than 8,000 words, and should be typed in double spacing.

Electronic submission is preferred and contributions may be sent as email attachments to pq@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Most formats are acceptable, but PDF is preferred. Alternatively, non-electronic submissions may be sent to the address below.

Three copies of each essay are required and these will not be returned. All entries will be regarded as submissions for publication in The Philosophical Quarterly, and both winning and non-winning entries judged to be of sufficient quality will be published.

The closing date for submissions is 1st November 2011.

All submissions should be headed ‘The Emotions’ Prize Essay Competition (with the author’s name and address given in a covering letter, but NOT in the essay itself) and sent to:

The Journal Manager
The Philosophical Quarterly
University of St Andrews
KY16 9AR
Scotland,
UK