Call For Papers / Appel De Communications:

Canadian Jacques Maritain Association / L’association canadienne Jacques Maritain
Annual Spring Symposium
Theme: The Challenges of Technology for Humanity
In conjunction with the Canadian Philosophical Association and Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences
June 1-4, 2025
George Brown College
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
https://www.maritain.info/spring-meeting-cfp

Deadline for submission of abstracts: April 30, 2025

We live in a time that is experiencing rapid technological change. The advances in Artificial Technology, robotics, medicine, telecommunications, and space travel, to name only a few examples, are directly impacting human life in ways inconceivable only a decade ago. Our societies are being impacted by these new technologies, altering the way we live, think, earn a living, imagine our possibilities, and even how we die. No part of human life is exempt from the technological advancements being made today.

The Spring 2025 Symposium of the Canadian Jacques Maritain Association will focus on the challenges faced by humanity, understood broadly, in our age of technological development. Given the momentousness of these influences and changes, it is imperative that we determine the benefits and harms of this technological landscape to prepare ourselves for the future.

Possible topics include: how AI is changing the way human beings think and relate to one another in society and politics; the meaning of education (teaching and learning) in a virtual world; the new economy that is impacted by AI and robotics; posthumanism and the threats posed to human nature; the alleviation of suffering through medicine and pharmaceuticals; dying by instrumental means in euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide; the place of transcendence, creativity, spirituality, and religion in a technocratic lifeworld; the problem of discriminating between truth and falsehood, reality and unreality; how media shapes human beings and society; how to be authentic and virtuous in a bureaucratic, surveillance society; the meaning of life and the mental health epidemic; the breakdown of relationships and the affliction of loneliness; and the conflict between freedom and necessity.

The Canadian Jacques Maritain Association invites papers that treat aspects of the conference theme, taken in a broad sense, from a philosophical and/or theological perspective. Although we encourage topics that engage directly with the thought of Jacques Maritain, we also welcome papers from other philosophical and theological traditions and standpoints that are relevant to the theme.

Since the Canadian Jacques Maritain Association is a bilingual association, papers can be in either English or French. Selected papers will be published in Études maritainiennes-Maritain Studies, the official journal of the Canadian Jacques Maritain Association.

The conference will take place over one day during the period of June 1-5, 2025—the actual date is still to be determined—in conjunction with the spring conference of the Canadian Philosophical Association and the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada will be the host venue.

Those who wish to present a paper should send by e-mail a one-page abstract or proposal to:

Dr. Nikolaj Zunic
Department of Philosophy
St. Jerome’s University
290 Westmount Road North, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G3, Canada
E-mail: nzunic@uwaterloo.ca

Deadline for submission of proposals: April 30, 2025

Papers should not exceed 35 minutes reading time.

For more information, please visit the website for the Canadian Jacques Maritain Association: https://www.maritain.info/