CALL FOR PAPERS
Ethics and the Family
Theme
The fondation Ostad Elahi: Ethics and Human Solidarity, recognized as a public interest group by the French State with special consultative status at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and CERCES, the Center for Research in Meaning, Ethics and Society (CERSES/ Paris Descartes University/CNRS/UMR 8137), are collaborating in a call for papers on the theme of “Ethics and Family”.
The objective is to gather papers from a range of scientific disciplines (ethics, anthropology, psychology, law, economy, sociology, philosophy, etc.) for a book that makes an inventory of current research both at a national and an international level on the following question: What are the ethical problems and the norms of moral behavior in contemporary families in the context of a globalized world?
It is within the family that moral sentiments as well as certain significant ethical expectations crystallize, whether it be moral motivations for forming a couple and founding a family based on a particular model, parent-child relations in all their complexities, or moral asymmetry in the relation to oneself as opposed to the relation to others. It is not an easy task to grasp and clarify that which is entangled in emotions, affects, and justifications. For example, the ordinary concept of fidelity oscillates between private virtue, social virtue and theological virtue.
The family, as most recently conceptualized, seems to be a source of new vulnerabilities requiring a reevaluation of the demand for autonomy based on consent as the ultimate criterion of legitimacy. This question may involve the choice of one’s spouse and the possible development of a sense of obligation in individuals unable to achieve autonomy and freedom. An individual’s choices are often a response to family pressure, pressure from the community, and even from society at large to do what is expected of him of her.
The status of the body and of sexuality within the family also raises questions of an ethical nature concerning one’s relationship to one’s body. Should one identify oneself with one’s body or is the body a person’s property? How does one accept one’s own body? – but also concerning the development of one’s relations to others. The question of personal identity, and of relations with others can be raised both from a moral and political viewpoint.
Conditions of procreation (generalized contraception, assisted conception), forms of kinship and paternity (the evolution of systems of name attribution, adoptive and artificial parenthood), and sexual identity itself are questioned in this debate on the family and reflect both individual practices and collective developments.
Proposals for papers
Proposals for papers must be drafted on one page and sent by email to info@fondationostadelahi.fr or to cerses@parisdescartes.fr. Further information may also be requested in writing to these addresses. The deadline for proposals is January 31st, 2009.
All candidates must include:
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their contact information: postal address, email address, telephone number
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the university or institution they are affiliated with and/or their profession.
All submitted proposals will be examined by a scientific committee of at least two readers, each of whom will render his/her decision separately. The decision of the scientific committee will be communicated to the author.
If a submitted proposal is selected, the author must submit his or her paper no later than June 30th, 2009.
Typographical instructions
All papers, in English or in French, must not exceed 20 pages in length (Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1.5 spacing).
All papers must include a summary of approximately 10 lines.
Only footnotes are permitted (no endnotes); footnotes must be numbered consecutively. A bibliography may be included but must not exceed 2000 characters.
The bibliography must adhere to the following model:
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for books: Monnier J. (2005), The Title of the Article in Italics, edition, Editor.
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for a book chapter: Monnier J. (2002), Title of chapter without quotation marks, in Aubert D. (ed.) Title of the Book in Italics, edition, Editor, pp. 133-167.
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for articles: Monnier J. (2006), Title of the article in quotation marks, Title of the Periodical in Italics, Place of edition if the editor is not national, volume, pp. 133-167.
Invitation
The authors may be called upon to present their paper at an international conference in Paris in 2010.
