The Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence (PJCV) welcomes submissions that relate the work of Ortega y Gasset to conflict and violence. Ortega’s philosophical writings are the product of Ortega plus his circumstances, and Ortega’s circumstances were indelibly marked by conflict and violence. Produced during a period of unprecedented political and social upheaval in Spain and globally, Ortega’s philosophy promoted an agonistic and Protean view of human character and social relations. As a future-facing, change-seeking, conservative progressive, Ortega’s thought remains a paradox and his work demands reconsideration and re-evaluation by every subsequent generation.

Argument

The Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence (PJCV) welcomes submissions that relate the work of Ortega y Gasset to conflict and violence.

The selected articles will be published in December 2025. This special edition will be guest-edited by by Jean du Toit & Gregory Swer.

One of the most creative Spanish philosophers of the twentieth century, Ortega y Gasset was lauded in his time as one of Europe’s leading essayists and intellectuals. The status of his thought today is rather ambivalent, being both venerated (within Hispanophone philosophy) and overlooked (in the Anglophone philosophical community) in equal measure. This state of affairs would perhaps not have surprised Ortega given the tendency of his work to straddle disciplinary boundaries and the difficulty of affiliating his positions with the standard political and philosophical camps. A master of deceptively limpid prose and poetic turn of phrase, Ortega’s elegant and accessible style of writing may well have counted against his contemporary consideration as a ‘serious thinker’ in an age in which philosophical opacity is often taken as evidence of profundity. Though relegated to the same bracket as formerly fashionable but now neglected thinkers of the mid-20^th century, such as Spengler, Mumford and Santayana, Ortega’s philosophy refuses to be forgotten. His thought appears as a restless, gadfly spirit of European modernity, ahead of its time in identifying and analysing the existential implications of modern technology, and against the current in his combative, historically grounded and philosophically informed writings.

Ortega’s philosophical writings are the product of Ortega plus his circumstances, and Ortega’s circumstances were indelibly marked by conflict and violence. Produced during a period of unprecedented political and social upheaval in Spain and globally, Ortega’s philosophy promoted an agonistic and Protean view of human character and social relations. As a future-facing, change-seeking, conservative progressive, Ortega’s thought remains a paradox and his work demands reconsideration and re-evaluation by every subsequent generation.

 This collection of papers calls for contributors to this endeavour.

 Possible topics may include (but are not restricted to):

• Ortega’s account of civilizational progress and decline
• Hunting
• The Sportive Origins of the State
• Mass Culture and Homo Technologicus
• The Theory of Evolutionary Saltation
• Ortega’s agonistic view of the formation and function of society
• The tension between the individual and the social in Ortega’s thought
• The inevitability of hierarchies
• The Disaster of 1898, the First World War, the Constitutional Crisis, the Rif War, the Primo do Rivera dictatorship, the Second Republic, Spanish Civil War, the Franco dictatorship, the Second World War
• Ortega’s relations to Nationalist and Republican forces
• Ortega’s political thought in relation to Nationalism and Republicanism
• Ortega on Anarchism, Marxism, and Fascism
• Ortega’s break with Husserl
• Ortega’s break with Unamuno
• Ortega’s priority dispute with Heidegger over the “existential turn” in phenomenology
• Ortega’s critique of other philosophers (e.g. Kant, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Spengler, Leibniz)

Important Dates and Submission Guidelines

We invite expressions of interest and ask all prospective authors to send a short 500 word abstract to jean.dutoit@nwu.ac.za and andreas.wilmes@trivent-publishing.eu

by no later than September 9, 2024.

Authors will be informed on whether to proceed or not by September 30, 2024.

Full papers should be written in the PJCV template and should not exceed 10,000 words (bibliography and footnotes aside).

Reviewing process 

PJCV double-blind peer reviews all material it receives. Once an article is submitted, it is initially received by the editor-in-chief. In order to make a decision, the editor-in-chief (together with the guest editor, in case of a special issue) will send the manuscript for parallel approval to two reviewers specialized in the subject of the manuscript. Reviewers are asked to declare any competing interests on any manuscripts we send to them. Reviewers then advise the editor, who makes the final decision on the acceptance of the article. After acceptance and the submission of the updated manuscript following the reviewers’ comments, the article is checked for review compliance, after which it goes into publication. The PJCV is a diamond open access journal. No fees are charged to authors or readers.

For further information, please visit our website: https://trivent-publishing.eu/32-philosophical-journal-of-conflict-and-violence-pjcv 

Editorial Information 

Editor-in-chief

• Andreas Wilmes, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest (Hungary)

Associate editors

• Joan-Antoine Mallet, University Paul-Valéry (Montpellier III)
• Robert Manning, Quincy University 
• Claudiu Mesaros, West University of Timisoara

Advisory board

• Jeremiah Alberg, International Christian University, Tokyo (Japan)
• Sandrine Baume, University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
• Luc-Etienne de Boyer, Lycée Camille Claudel, Digoin (France)
• Elisabetha Brighi, University of Westminster, London (United Kingdom)
• Antonio Cerella, Kingston University, London (United Kingdom)
• Virgil Ciomoș, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
• Emanuel Copilaș, West University of Timisoara (Romania)
• Grégory Cormann, University of Liège (Belgium)
• David Dawson, University of Aberdeen (Scotland)
• Greg McCreery, University of South Florida (United States of America)
• Paul Dumouchel, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto (Japan)
• Denis Forest, University Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris I) (France)
• Mihaela Frunză, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
• David Goa, University of Alberta (Canada)
• Bruno Godefroy, Sun Yat-Sen University (Zhuhai)
• Pierre Guenancia, University of Bourgogne, Dijon (France)
• Vicente de Haro Romo, Universidad Panamericana (México)
• Cristian Iftode, University of Bucharest (Romania)
• Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, Institute for Strategic Research (France)
• Samuel Lepine, University Jean-Moulin (Lyon III) (France)
• Florin Lobont, West University of Timisoara (Romania)
• Michela Marzano, University Paris-Descartes (Paris V) (France)
• Julie Mazaleigue-Labaste, University Panthéon Sorbonne (CNRS, Paris I)
• Basarab Nicolescu, University Pierre et Marie Curie (CNRS, Paris VI)
• Wolfgang Palaver, University of Innsbruck (Austria)
• Jean-Luc Périllé, University Paul-Valéry (Montpellier III) (France)
• Patrick Singy, New York Union College (United States of America)
• Mihai Spariosu, University of Georgia (United States of America)
• Laurenţiu Staicu, University of Bucharest (Romania)
• Thomas Sturm, Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain)
• Michel Terestchenko, University Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France)
• Raphaël Verchère, University Claude-Bernard (Lyon I) (France)