Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. Please submit your paper by 1st February 2025.
Call for Papers: Special Issue on “Grief in the Digital Age” (Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences)
Submissions are invited for articles for a Special Issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences titled “Grief in the Digital Age.” The Special Issue aims to explore the role of digital technologies for grief experiences.
Description:
Grief is a complex phenomenon that can be characterised as an emotional process in response to the irrevocable loss of a significant person. In recent years, research at the intersection of phenomenology and empirically informed philosophy of mind has gained momentum (e.g., Cholbi, 2021; Fuchs, 2018; Markovic, 2022; Millar & Lopez-Cantero, 2022; Ratcliffe, 2023). This research has identified and analysed key aspects of the phenomenology and emotional structure of bereavement responses. However, the influence of socio-cultural practices and technologies on the structure and quality of grief experiences deserves further exploration and scrutiny. This is particularly true for death technologies (deathtech). Death technologies can be defined as personalized and individualized artificial intelligence (AI) systems, which are marketed as effective resources for the regulation of grief experiences and commemoration. Recently, death technologies have received considerable philosophical attention (e.g., Buben, 2015; Krueger & Osler, 2022; Lindemann, 2022; Stokes, 2021). However, this research has largely focussed on the ethical and moral implications of death technologies, rather than the systematic development of descriptive accounts of interactions between grieving agents and death technologies. This special issue aims to bring together research in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, the cognitive sciences, and the philosophy of AI to help better understand the impact of death technologies on the structure, quality, and temporal unfolding of grief within and across agents, situational contexts, and cultures.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
- How can agent-deathtech interactions be described from a phenomenological perspective?
- To what extent can accounts of 4E cognition and situated affectivity help understand agent-deathtech interactions?
- How do death technologies influence and shape grief experiences?
- To what extent does the wide availability of death technologies change our attitudes towards our own mortality?
- To what extent does the wide availability of death technologies change how we anticipate the death of significant persons?
- What are the phenomenological and moral implications of the actual or anticipated impact of death technologies on grief?
Invited contributors:
- Adam Buben
- Robert Brooks
- Nora Lindemann
- Mianna Lotz
- Thomas Montefiore
- Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska
- Paul-Mikhail Catapang Podosky
- Patrick Stokes
Guest Editors:
Regina E. Fabry, Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, [email protected]
Marilyn Stendera, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong, [email protected].
Submission deadline:
Please submit your paper by February 1 2025.
Word limit:
Submissions larger than 10,000 words (including references) are discouraged.
Online submission:
Please use the journal’s Online Manuscript Submission System (Editorial Manager®).
Author Submission’s Guidelines:
Authors are asked to prepare their manuscripts according to the journal’s standard Submissions Guidelines.
Please access the Collection Page for further information. For any questions, feel free to contact the Lead Guest Editor Regina Fabry ([email protected]).