CfP - Jorge Luis Borges and Greek Philosophy. In Praise of the Ancients.

Call for Papers 

Jorge Luis Borges and Greek Philosophy. In Praise of the Ancients. 

Scholars dedicated to the writings of Jorge Luis Borges have long been interested in the way the author draws ideas, images, and arguments from the philosophical tradition. But two opposing views seem to surface from many of their works. In broad terms, one of these views considers that Borges uses philosophical materials for literary and aesthetic purposes, while the other one holds that Borges is himself an authentic philosopher who employs literature as a vehicle for introducing philosophical questions and discussing philosophical problems. Beyond this hermeneutical quandary, however, is the certainty that Borges is an avid reader of the philosophical tradition and that he introduces in his texts philosophical themes which play a constitutive role in his imaginative and insightful creations. 

In the works of Borges, many ancient Greek philosophers are named and even their doctrines are often explained, evincing both the vast knowledge and understanding that he had attained about them and his mastery of the literary form into which he interweaved his references and accounts. Thales, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Parmenides and Zeno, Democritus, Socrates and Protagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus: these are many of the ancient philosophers that Borges explicitly recalls in his works. The present proposal, hence, aims to gather papers that examine the role ancient philosophers and their thought play in Borges’ writings. Taking as an antecedent the previous scholarship that deal with the philosophical aspect of Borges’ work, we propose to focus the present book on ancient Greek philosophy as a key component of his texts. We welcome papers that approach this broad topic from the perspectives of the History of Philosophy and from Literary Studies and encourage all contributions that shed light on the mode of the presence of ancient philosophy in the work of Jorge Luis Borges. 

Submission Guidelines

We invite submissions of titles and abstracts between 400 and 600 words describing individual chapters of unpublished and original research material. The accepted language of the volume is English. Documents should be prepared for anonymous review in PDF format. Please, use the following title in the subject line of your email: “Borges and Ancient Greek Philosophy”. Personal information and the title of the proposed chapter should be included in the body of the email. Please, submit proposals to info@ipt.gr (attn: G. Stamatellos and G. Martino)  

Important Dates

Titles and abstracts (400-600 words): 31 August 2023
Decision of the editors: 11 December 2023
First draft (6000-8000 words including notes and references): 31 March 2024
Report of the editors: 30 June 2024
Complete paper: 30 September 2024

Editors of the volume

Giannis Stamatellos, PhD (Institute of Philosophy and Technology, Athens)
https://ipt.gr/giannis-stamatellos/ 

Gabriel Martino, PhD (CONICET, UBA, USAL)
https://www.conicet.gov.ar/new_scp/detalle.php?id=29961&keywords=gabriel+martino&datos_academicos=yes