CALL FOR PAPERS
Book Symposium
Abstract: Epiphanies is a philosophical exploration of epiphanies, peak experiences, 'wow moments', or ecstasies as they are sometimes called. What are epiphanies, and why do so many people so frequently experience them? Are they just transient phenomena in our brains, or are they the revelations of objective value that they very often seem to be? What do they tell us about the world, and about ourselves? How, if at all, do epiphanies fit in with our moral systems and our theories of how to live? And how do epiphanic experiences fit in with the rest of our lives? These are Sophie Grace Chappell's questions in this ground-breaking new study of an area of inquiry that has always been right under our noses, but remains surprisingly under-explored in contemporary philosophy.
Author Bio: Sophie Grace Chappell is Professor of Philosophy at the Open University. She was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Edinburgh University. She was Leverhulme Major Research Fellow 2017-2020, a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at St Andrews 2017-2020, and Erskine Research Fellow, University of Canterbury, NZ, Spring 2020. Since 2021 she has been Executive Editor of The Philosophical Quarterly. She has also held visiting appointments in the Universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow, British Columbia, Stirling, Reykjavik, and Oslo. She has published over 150 articles on ethics, moral psychology, epistemology, ancient philosophy, and philosophy of religion. Her books include Knowing What to Do: Imagination, Virtue, and Platonism in Ethics (OUP, 2014) and Values and Virtues (ed., OUP, 2007). She is the UK's first openly transgender philosophy academic, having transitioned in 2014, and campaigns actively on feminist and transgender issues.
The Journal of Philosophy of Emotion (JPE) is planning to publish a book symposium on Dr. Sophie Grace Chappell's latest book, Epiphanies: An Ethics of Experience, and we are looking for commentators who are interested in engaging in a critical discussion of it, with the aim of moving the discourse on relevant topics highlighted by her book forward. We are hoping to publish this book symposium in the JPE’s winter 2024 issue. If you are interested, please email us (submissions.jpe@gmail.com), informing us of your interest, along with a copy of your CV, by Sept 30th, 2023. We will contact you by Oct 15th, 2023, with a decision regarding your expressed interest and any further details. Invited commentators will each receive a free digital copy of Epiphanies to review for their commentary, unless a hard copy is required.
Please refer to past issues of the JPE for examples, and all submissions must adhere to the JPE’s style guideline. All contributors are also responsible for copyediting their own submissions and providing any requested citation information, although the JPE will also conduct a preliminary review and copyedit check of all accepted submissions.
We encourage a diversity of scholars of all ranks who are interested in participating as commentators to respond to this CFP, provided that they are willing and able to commit to fulfilling the expectations of our double-anonymous peer review process. Please note that commentators will be selected not only based on their qualifications, but also based on considerations for the value of diversity and inclusiveness among qualified commentators; and a scholar's qualification will be judged based on the quality of the commentaries submitted. Potential contributors are also welcome to let us know in their letter of interest that they would be willing to referee the composed book symposium if for some reason they were not invited to contribute a commentary, but would still like to contribute to the book symposium.
Please note that the JPE requires a submission fee of $35, or you can become a member of the Society for Philosophy of Emotion (SPE), which includes a one time JPE submission fee waiver. The JPE is an independently published, open-access journal, and all manuscript submission fees go toward paying for operating costs and providing need based subventions to facilitate diverse and inclusive participation.