Environmental Ethics: Between Action and Reflection

Kiel, Germany
July 23rd to 25th, 2015

Hosted by the Chair for Philosophy and Ethics of the Environment at Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany

Scholars from environmental ethics and neighboring disciplines are invited to propose special 2 hour sessions. (A general call for papers will appear in Fall.)

Session organizers are free to choose a format, for example:

• conventional paper presentations and discussion
• paper presentations by a commentator, with a reply by the author, and general discussion,
• panel discussions.

The title for the 12 Annual Conference expresses the idea that environmental ethics can be understood as encompassing two different routes of inquiry and reasoning. One route is practical: As a field of applied ethics, environmental ethics aims to guide action. It starts from moral norms and principles, concepts and ideas (e.g., sustainability, deep ecology, environmental justice) and develops them into guidelines, rules, and objectives for practical engagement and policy-making.

The other route is reflective: As a field of applied ethics, environmental ethics acts as the bridge between lived practical problems and the conceptual reflections that illuminate them critically according to their presuppositions. By doing so, this philosophical route immerses one in metaethical, epistemological and ontological questions. Along this reflective route, environmental ethicists take the traditional role of philosophers.

Both routes are interdisciplinary: On the one hand, in aiming at action-guiding arguments, environmental ethics necessarily builds on reasoned opinions about what and how the world actually is. On the other hand, analyzing the presuppositions of different kinds of arguments being used in environmental discourses heads the inquiry into neighboring philosophical disciplines but also other sciences and humanities, such as political science, anthropology, and economics.

The conference shall mirror the current scope of environmental ethics with respect to both action and reflection.

With this call, we invite scholars from environmental ethics and neighboring disciplines interested in organizing a special session in the course of the conference.

Submissions should clearly state the topic and connection to the overall conference theme as well as the envisioned format. Submissions should not exceed 500 words. For those formats that specify participants (e.g. the panelist of a panel discussion) a confirmation/statement that they will actually come to Kiel is required. Formats that invite papers will be asked to produce a call for paper to complement the general call for papers at a later stage.

Successful submissions will be granted a waiver of conference fees for one session chair. Beyond this, we cannot offer any additional funding.

Deadline for submission: September 30th 2014!

Please submit your session proposal to isee2015@email.uni-kiel.de, subject: ISEE session proposal

Questions can be directed to Lieske Voget-Kleschin at voget-kleschin@philsem.uni-kiel.de