CfP: Why and How Do We Study Early Modern Philosophy Today? (Special Issue)

CfP: Why and How Do We Study Early Modern Philosophy Today?

Special Issue of History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis 30.2 (2027)
Guest Editors: Laura Georgescu (University of Groningen) and Martin Lenz (FernUniversität in Hagen)

This special issue invites contributions that examine contemporary approaches to the study of early modern philosophy and reflect on the aims and methods that guide current scholarship. We welcome contributions on any text, topic, or figure of the period, provided that the paper explicitly highlights the aims or methods it employs.

We particularly encourage submissions that

  1. use a case study to illustrate a distinctive methodological or interpretive approach, or
  2. directly address debates concerning aims or methods in the field.

Possible questions include, but are not limited to:

  • How should we theorize and clarify the relationship between historical and rational reconstructions?
  • Which aims and criteria guide our decisions about including marginalized figures and traditions in the early modern canon?
  • How do digital humanities tools reshape the study of early modern philosophy?
  • Do traditional assumptions about contextualization, textual analysis, or intellectual genealogies still hold?

These themes do not need to be the exclusive focus of a paper; rather, they serve as an invitation to reflect on the methodological or interpretive commitments underlying your study.

Submissions

Articles up to 10,000 words can be submitted via https://www.editorialmanager.com/hpla/ until August 31, 2026 and will be processed on a rolling basis. Accepted publications can be published early in online first mode.

Pre-Submission Inquiries

If you are unsure whether your contribution fits the issue, you may submit an abstract of 500–1000 words by January 31, 2026 to the guest editors:

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

ESEMP Conference: Why and How Do We Study Early Modern Philosophy Today?

(Crossposted at Handling Ideas Blog)

Following our Call for Abstracts last November, I am now happy to report that the Society for Early Modern Philosophy (ESEMP) runs it’s seventh conference at Hagen University, the place where the society was actually founded in 2004. In the meantime, we’ve finalised the downloadable conference programme (more details will be added on the conference website in the coming days). In case you want to register as a guest, there is an extra page for this.

At this point, I take the liberty to thank my wonderful team at Hagen for working ceaselessly to make (not only) this conference happen as well as the Hagen Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for generous financial support.

The aim of this conference is to bring together leading experts and young talented scholars from all over the world to explore ways of approaching early modern philosophy and reflect anew on the aims of doing so. Following recent discussions in the field, we will wonder, for instance, whether we should favour historical over so-called rational reconstructions of texts or what precise aims are served by extending the canon. Likewise, we will ask how advances in the digital humanities shape our field. Even if one works in more traditional ways, one has to inquire whether common assumptions about how to place and study texts, figures or debates still stand. A second focus of our conference concerns (practical) issues concerning especially early career researchers. In this spirit, the conference includes a mentoring programme intended to connect mentees with experienced researchers who will provide advice on papers.

Call for Abstracts: ESEMP conference from 25 to 27 September 2025 in Hagen

Call for Abstracts

The European Society for Early Modern Philosophy (ESEMP) invites submissions of abstracts for presentation at the 7th international conference of the ESEMP:

Why and How Do We Study Early Modern Philosophy Today?

25-27 September 2025

FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany

Keynote Speakers: Mogens Lærke (CNRS) and Anik Waldow (University of Sydney)

The aim of this conference is to bring together leading experts and young talented scholars from all over the world to explore ways of approaching early modern philosophy and reflect anew on the aims of doing so. While all papers on the period are welcome, talks highlighting the respective aims or methods of studying EMP are particularly encouraged.

Following recent discussions in the field, we might wonder, for instance, whether we should favour historical over so-called rational reconstructions of texts or what precise aims are served by extending the canon. Likewise, we might ask how advances in the digital humanities shape our field. Even if one works in more traditional ways, one might inquire whether common assumptions about how to place and study texts, figures or debates still stand. This does not mean that papers should focus on these issues alone; rather it is an invitation to reflect on the aims or methods guiding the study at hand.

A second focus of our conference concerns (practical) issues concerning especially early career researchers. In this spirit, the conference includes a mentoring programme intended to connect mentees with experienced researchers who will provide advice on papers.

Submissions

We invite submissions of abstracts for papers addressing all aspects of early modern philosophy. To submit, please email an abstract – between 500-700 words and anonymised for blind review – to Tanja Moll (tanja.moll@fernuni-hagen.de). Please use ‘ESEMP 2025 abstract’ as the header of your email. The email should contain the author’s details (name, position, affiliation, contact details). The mail and the abstract should contain three keywords to which the abstract relates (indicating theme, author, and method / aim highlighted, if applicable). Please use the PDF format for submission and prepare the text of the abstract for blind refereeing.

If you would like to take advantage of the mentoring programme, please say so in your mail. If you would like to act as a mentor, please also indicate this in your mail. We will try to match mentors and mentees in relation to the keywords provided in the mail.

Please direct any questions you might have to Martin Lenz: martin.lenz@fernuni-hagen.de

Procedure

The deadline for abstract submission is 15 January 2025.

Papers will be selected by the board of the ESEMP.

Notifications of acceptance will be made by 28 February 2025.

For each talk, there will be time for a 30-minute presentation, with about another 15 minutes for discussion. All accepted papers will be eligible in case of the publication of the proceedings.

Upon acceptance

We do not request that you pay a fee, but membership of the ESEMP is compulsory to present a paper at the conference. (Annual membership fee: 30 EUR; reduced annual membership fee: 15 EUR).

To become a member of the ESEMP, please use our application form or contact the Treasurer of the ESEMP: hubertus.busche@fernuni-hagen.de