Cogency

CFP, Topical issue of Cogency on “System and Complexity in Classical German Philosophy”

Guest edited by Pablo Pulgar Moya, Diego Portales University (Chile), and Fernanda Medina, Adolfo Ibáñez University (Chile).

Submission deadline: June 15^th, 2024

Expected Publication: August 2024

Theme and scope:

The international journal Cogency dedicates its XX^th volume to the concepts of system and complexity in German Classical Philosophy specially Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. The problem of complexity has taken place since philosophy as a problem located in the systemic relationship between the totality and its parts. This relation, which has been going on since Heraclitus, has been predominant in the course of the so-called German Idealism. The unity of the parts in the totality presents us with the philosophical dilemma of the coherence and connection of the system and subsystems. The unity of the totality captivated the attention and criticism of various German authors towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Hölderlin's hen-kai-pan (one-and-all) is the manifest result of this spirit of the times, which is gestated in dialogues, epistolaries and voluminous replies. Philosophical thought as a unitary system is representative of canonical authors of German idealism, but who differ in the diverse ontology of that unit in the metaphysical, aesthetic, political, practical corpus, etc. In this sense, the complexity of relations and interrelations of the systems marks the guiding thread of the debates on unity and difference in canonical authors such as Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Jacobi. This complexity is the theme of the current volume.

The aim of the volume is to examine whether inputs drawn from the Classical German philosophical tradition help address important questions about the composition, nature and/or structure of philosophical systems. To this goal, this issue aims to compare different perspectives on this problem and, since Kant, critically thematize systematicity of philosophy, which radically transformed the way in which modern philosophy conceives itself. Some of the fundamental issues that structure this number are the following:

1. A) The problem of the system of pure reason in Kant and the understanding of the architectural unity of Kantian rational activity. The overcoming of the idea of the system as a pure logical totality and the postulation of reason as an expression of the autonomy of thought.
2. B) The adoption and inversion by different Kant’s successors of the architectural difference between the propaedeutic critique and the encyclopedic system. Completion and overcoming of Kant’s system as doctrine of science, as philosophy of the absolute or as speculative philosophy by Fichte, Schelling and Hegel.
3. C) The differentiation of the concepts of system in a comparative way among authors such as Spinoza, Leibniz, Hölderlin, Blumemberg, Jacobi or Meldelsohn.
4. D) The complex character of the systems of German idealism. By this we refer to the multiplicity of argumentative stages they compose, which combine heterogeneous areas.
5. E) The importance of the systematic scientific examination of epistemological, moral and aesthetic dimension shared by Classical German philosophers. The continuous debate with other internal systems.

Submission guidelines: The manuscript (written either in English or Spanish) should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words (including tables, references, figure captions, and endnotes). We would especially welcome submissions addressing anything from the following non-exhaustive list topics:

• Historical approach to doctrinal conception of a system in one of the authors
• Demand that metaphysics should be presented in the form of a system, or that it should be demonstrated from key first principles.
• Demand that practical or ethical philosophy should be presented in the form of a system.
• Encyclopaedical system as complex system or philosophical project
• Relation of complex systems with specific key terms, i.e.:
  • system and critique
  • system and doctrine
  • system and life
  • system and ethical life
  • system and organism/structure
  • system and nature

Please submit your manuscript before July 15^th, 2024 via our submission page here. More information on the submission guidelines is also available on the same page. When submitting your manuscript, please include two documents:

1. The complete text of your manuscript without any identifying information,
2. A title page with the title of the manuscript, the author’s name(s), the author's full address (including the email address), and any acknowledgment and/or conflict of interest.

About Cogency: This international journal, edited by the Institute of Philosophy of the Universidad Diego Portales, is dedicated to the study of philosophical problems related to conceptions of rationality, its varieties, applications, and uses. This indexed journal uses a double-blind peer-review system and advocates for an open-access policy that does not charge extra fees for article processing. For more information, please visit our website.

Should you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact our guest editors at [email protected], [email protected], or us at [email protected].