Call for Papers: “Climate Change, Sustainability and an Ethics of an Open Future”
Societas Ethica Annual Conference, August 22-25, 2013 Kontakt der Kontinente, Soesterberg, Netherlands
This will be the 50th Societas Ethica conference. It is realized in cooperation with the ESF Network “A Right to a Green Future”.
Climate change, dwindling resources, and growth of the global population have emerged as challenges for all areas of political action in modern societies. These challenges have been on the political agenda since the “Limits to Growth” report was released in 1972. While the challenges are well known, and while there appears to be some form of consensus that sustainability is a goal worth striving for, there is little discussion of how the changes necessary to achieve this goal will affect our political institutions, our social relationships, our moral responsibilities, and our self-understanding in general. The more far-reaching the necessary changes are, the more pressing the following questions will become: To what extent are political and economic institutions – national as well as global – capable of realizing sustainable politics and what is its ethical basis? To what extent will personal liberties, such as freedom of movement, property rights, and reproductive autonomy, need to be limited in order to realize sustainable politics? How could we extend the current system of human rights to incorporate the rights of future generations? Can we expect human beings to take responsibility for the living conditions of future generations, and how do such responsibilities affect philosophical and eschatological theories? An ethics of an open future must develop criteria for moral action under conditions of uncertainty. A developed theory of the principle of precaution in ethics and law is, however, lacking.
Paper channels:
1. Climate change and scarcity of resources as ethical challenges 2. Sustainability, future generations and human rights 3. Democracy, global governance and political ethics 4. An open future; philosophical and theological responses 5. Reflections from different cultural and religious perspectives 6. Open channel
Authors are invited to submit an abstract of max. 4,000 characters. Abstracts should be suitable for blind review.
Document 1: Your name, first name, email address, institutional address, the title of your abstract, the topic under which your abstract falls, and, if eligible, your application to participate in the Young Scholars’ Award competition (see information below).
Document 2: Your abstract and title (max. 4,000 chars; we do not accept full papers) with all identifying references removed.
Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2013.
Societas Ethica Young Scholars’ Award:
The Young Scholars’ Award is awarded to the best presentation by a young scholar at the Societas Ethica Annual conference.
Young scholars for the purpose of this competition are PhD student and PhDs who earned their degree less than two years ago and do not have a tenure-track academic position. If you wish to be considered for the YSA, please indicate this in the file with the personal information accompanying your abstract.
For more information about Societas Ethica Young Scholars’ Award, please visit the website at www.societasethica.info.
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