CFP: Creation of Reality: The Crag International Confluence 2015
3-5 December 2015, University of Edinburgh
Since the second half of the 20th century, ‘creation of reality’ is a compound that has gained exponential momentum in books and other publications (fiction and non-fiction). The general increase in the human belief that reality is, or can be to differing extents, created by us, is apparent in social processes of empowerment or disempowerment. ‘Creation of reality’ is also a growing scheme within the humanities, in the diverse corrugations of social constructivism. It is also vivid in the science-fictional idea of terraforming or planetary engineering, or in New Age beliefs of supra-agency. Contemporary philosophers of mind touch the ‘creation of reality’ theme through discussions on cognitive enhancement, virtual reality, or contemplative reprogramming, and they explore our cognitive capacities to shape our surroundings beyond our organismic apparatus. And last but not least, in the last five decades, growing environmental consciousness and interest for holistic life-on-earth studies seem to call for the development of an interdisciplinary comprehension (a meta-geobiology?) of Nature (more and more artefactual), and Technoculture (more and more perceived as natural). This conference and workshop, organized by the Creation of Reality Group, sponsored by the University of Edinburgh researcher-led fund and hosted by the School of Literature, Languages and Cultures, will be the first international CRAG Confluence. We warmly invite propositions from all fields: discourse analysis, social epistemology, politics, Foucauldian genealogy, environmental studies, philosophy, cognitive sciences, history, education, anthropology, physics, sociology, informatics, cultural studies and the humanities (the list is not exhaustive).
Submission deadline: 30 June 2015
Please send an abstract of 500-800 words, in addition to 100-200 words of biography. Please specify if you only want to participate to the round table. Notification: before 15 August 2015.
For more information, please see the conference website.