CALL FOR PAPERS

Book Symposium

Abstract: Why are city dwellers worldwide walking on average ten percent faster than they were a decade ago? Why are newcomer immigrant groups so often maligned when migration has always constituted civilization? To analyze and understand the depth of the reasons, Thomas Nail suggests that it serves us well to turn to a philosophy of movement. Synthesizing and extending many years of his influential work, The Philosophy of Movement is a comprehensive argument for how motion is the primary force in human and natural history. Nail critiques the bias toward stasis at the core of Western thought, asking: What would a philosophy that began with the primacy of movement look like? Interrogating the consequences of movement throughout history and in daily life in the twenty-first century, he draws connections and traces patterns between scales of reality, periods of history, and fields of knowledge. In our age of rapid movements shaped by accelerating climate change and ensuing mass global migration, as well as ubiquitous digital media, Nail provides a contemporary philosophy that helps us understand how we got here and how to grapple with these interlocking challenges. With a foreword by philosopher Daniel W. Smith, The Philosophy of Movement: An Introduction is a must-read for scholars and students not only of philosophy but also history, anthropology, science and technology studies, mobility studies, and other fields across the humanities and social sciences.

Author Bio: Thomas Nail is distinguished scholar and professor of philosophy at the University of Denver. He is author of many books, including Matter and Motion: A Brief History of Kinetic Materialism; Lucretius III: A History of Motion; Theory of the Object; and Being and Motion.

The Journal of Philosophy of Emotion (JPE) is planning to publish a book symposium on Dr. Thomas Nail's latest book, The Philosophy of Movement: An Introduction, 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 his book forward, especially in relation to topics in the Philosophy of Emotion. Interested scholars might review the following complimentary copy of the forward by Daniel W. Smith to give them a more in-depth idea of how the book, along with Professor Nail’s other works, might be related to concerns in the philosophy of emotions: Professor Daniel W. Smith’s foreword from The Philosophy of Movement: An Introduction by Thomas Nail, published by the University of Minnesota Press (copyright 2024 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota; used with permission). Digital copies of the complete book should also be easily available through your local university library for interested scholars to review before sending in their email of interest, and invited commentators will each receive a free digital or hard copy of The Philosophy of Movement to review for their commentary, according to the invited commentator's preference. Upon review of Professor Nail's book, one might notice that there is in fact no mention of emotions, and the hope is that interested scholars of emotion would help fill-in this lacuna through their commentaries. Topics of special interest would include, but are not limited to, the connection between emotions and movement (broadly speaking), as well as the connection between emotions and the social-political aspects of the philosophy of movement that Professor Nail highlights in this book and his other works. We are hoping to publish this book symposium in the JPE’s summer 2026 issue. 

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 or guest edit this book symposium if for some reason they were not invited to contribute a commentary, but would still like to contribute to the book symposium. Guest editors will be asked to manage this book symposium's double-anonymous peer review process and will be invited to write an editorial introduction for the book symposium, highlighting the significance of the discussions in the book symposium to the relevant philosophical discourses and adding any other important observations, notes, etc., that the guest editor deems important. The editorial introduction will also not be peer reviewed and the length will be left to the guest editor to decide. The guest editor will also receive the book symposium as a fully compiled, internally pre-vetted book symposium so they and their referees can focus on the quality of the substantive aspects of the book symposium. Also, the guest editor and peer referees will receive a free membership to the SPE as a thank you for their participation.

We encourage a diversity of scholars of all ranks who are interested in participating to respond to this CFP, provided that they are willing and able to commit to meeting the JPE's submission guidelines and fulfilling the expectations of our double-anonymous peer review process. To do so, please email us (submissions.jpe@gmail.com), informing us of your interest, along with a copy of your CV and completed commentary, by June 30, 2025. We will contact you by July 15, 2025, with a decision regarding whether your commentary will move forward to peer review. 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. Please also note that the JPE requires authors to complete the manuscript submission form and pay a manuscript submission fee of $35 or become a member of the SPE, at the time of initially submitting their initial commentary. Visit the Society for Philosophy of Emotion (SPE) for membership information, including information about the 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.