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Nonsense and Nonbeing

Non senso e non essere

Non-sens et non-être

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Published on Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Abstract

The aim of our Volume 27 of Chiasmi International is to explore the various importances to theinclusion of “nonsense and nonbeing” in philosophy. 

Announcement

Argument

One of the basic contributions of The Visible and the Invisible lies in the critique of a philosophy of the opposition between being and nothingness. An oppositional structure between being and nothingness implies a failure to consider difference seriously. It guarantees that there is no difference within either being or nothingness but rather one radical difference that separates them. This radical difference might be said to be no difference at all, since there can be no point of view that embraces both sides of the divide. This critique, however, has been present in different degrees of elaboration throughout Merleau-Ponty’s work, and it sheds light on Merleau-Ponty’s efforts to discuss the relation between sense and nonsense and philosophy and non-philosophy. It becomes clear that Merleau-Ponty is after a conceptual pair that can replace the being-nothingness opposition and propose instead a serious understanding of difference. The move towards the opposition of sense and nonsense gives us the resources to restore difference without collapsing it into either homogeneity or mutual exclusion. For example, in the experience of meaning, sense and nonsense are each time assembled in distinctive and particular ways.  This line of thought has opened up several options for the generations following Merleau-Pontysome argued that ontological difference fails and therefore difference itself need not be accounted for at the ontological level; others, that ontologis not about being and nothingness so much as it is about meaning; still others, that meaning is the source of the opposition between sense and nonsense. This resulted in a paradigm in which phenomenology opens itself up to the surrounding fields by addressing themes associated with the hermeneutical tradition, ethics and ontologies of difference and multiplicity, in the works of Levinas, Deleuze, Lyotard, Irigaray, and even Arendt; as well as also bringing phenomenology closer together with certain strands of the Hegelian and even Marxist and post Marxist traditions. The aim of our Volume 27 is to explore the various importances to the inclusion of “nonsense and nonbeing” in philosophy, which has otherwise tended towards synthesis and coherence.

Subission guidelines

Abstracts (4000 characters maximum) in French, English or Italian, should be submitted to Rajiv Kaushik (rkaushik@brocku.ca) and Frank Chouraqui (f.chouraqui@phil.leidenuniv.nl)  and be accompanied by brief biobibliographies of the author(s)

by 13 March 2025.

Then, the proposals selected after evaluation will have to be developed as an article and sent before 23 June 2025 on the basis of the editorial standards of Chiasmi International to allow their publication in issue 27 of the journal. 

Abstract and article length:

Abstract proposal: 4.000 signs, spaces included.

Final Article: 40.000 characters, spaces included.

The submissions must follow the editorial standards of Chiasmi International.

Information for authors

A peer-reviewed academic journal, Chiasmi International publishes original research on or inspired by the thought of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The contributions submitted to Chiasmi International must be original, with no simultaneous submission to other periodicals.

All submissions are subject to double blind peer-review and, if accepted, authors may be required to make revisions, based on feedback from the reviewers. The journal welcomes submissions in French, English, and Italian. 

Scientific editors of the section

  • Rajiv Kaushik (Brock University)
  • Frank Chouraqui (Leiden University, The Netherlands)

Date(s)

  • Thursday, March 13, 2025

Keywords

  • phenomenology, philosophy, being, Merleau-Ponty, perception, sense

Contact(s)

  • Rajiv Kaushik
    courriel : rkaushik [at] brocku [dot] ca

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Gael Caignard
    courriel : rivistakaiak [at] libero [dot] it

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Nonsense and Nonbeing », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/13db3

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