Call for Papers

Virtual Ontologies: Ethical and Aesthetical Approaches on the Digital Ego
Revue Roumaine de Philosophie (Clarivate Analytics index)
Call: https://www.uc.pt/site/assets/files/780642/cfp_moraru_and_segalerba_-_virtual_ontologies-1.pdf
Journal: http://www.institutuldefilosofie.ro/page.php?29

Issue guest editors: Cornel-Florin Moraru & Gianluigi Segalerba

Submission deadline: March 2024

The new emergent technologies in the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence gave rise to an entire new medium of existence for the human being, namely the virtual world, and, along with it, to a whole new series of philosophical problems in the fields of ontology, ethics and aesthetics. Being a space without dimensions, situated in the interstice between actuality and possibility, the virtual world has its own ontological status and traits that need to be addressed in order to fully understand the nature of our virtual interactions and the ethical and aesthetical values that underlie them.

The main goal of this project is to reconstruct the concept of authenticity in the light of its manifestations and impact on the popular culture of our time, especially in the virtual world of the social networks, by thoroughly taking into account the way it shapes and structures our virtual lives, our virtual interactions with each other and the way online social networks work as such. In order to do this, we shall try to understand the historical and philosophical roots of the concept of authenticity, to analyse its numerous metamorphoses and shifts throughout the history of western thought, to discuss the correlation between the concept of authenticity and that of the (techno)self, to examine possible ways of critically rethinking this concept, to question the concept of „virtuality” from a philosophical and cultural point of view, showing that the virtual and digital world, as it is represented in today’s AI research, brings up a completely new understanding of reality; finally, we shall analyse different ways of bridging the divide between sociality and authenticity, whose acute expression is, among others, the distorted, even false sense of belonging created by different types of virtual communities.

We welcome contributions that explore the philosophical implications of current digital practices and technologies, as well as contributions that explore the conceptual genealogy of the concepts relevant in the discussion about the ethics and aesthetics of the virtual world, with incursions in the history of ancient and modern philosophy.

Contact Emails:
cornelmoraru@gmail.com
gianluigisegalerba@gmail.com