Wilhelm von Humboldt's political Thought/ Wilhelm von Humboldt's politisches Denken/ Il pensiero politico di Wilhelm von Humboldt

Isabella Ferron Announcement
Location
Italy
Subject Fields
Anthropology, Intellectual History, Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy

Wilhelm von Humboldt’s political Thought

Wilhelm von Humboldt (1787-1835) as a person, and his ideas, still fascinate scholars from different disciplines, from Philosophy, to Linguistics or philosophical Anthropology, and are objects of their research. In the Italian scientific panorama new publications and studies testify this constant interest for the work of Humboldt, which has never been abandoned, as for instance the edition of Carrano, Massimilla e Tessitore, Wilhelm von Humboldt, duecentocinquant’anni dopo. Incontri e confronti (Liguori 2017).

The starting point of the following reflection is the analysis of Humboldt’s political thought, that is particularly interesting, as it is timely, innovative and extremely topical and refers to his idea of the role of the State in people’s lives, and the concepts of individuality and human diversity.

His first political ideas go back to 1791-92; however his works Ideen über Staatsverfassung (1791) and Ideen zu einem bestimmten Versuch, die Graenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen (1792) were published posthumously. They are very important as they help us to understand the genesis and the development of his ideas, and so interpret them. Humboldt’s political reflections draw a red line that fit his works, whether they deal with literary critics (Ästhetische Versuche. Erster Theil. Über Göthe’s Herrmann und Dorothea. Braunschweig [1799]; Über Schiller und den Gang seiner Geistesentwicklung [1830]), or with the study of languages (Pindars „Olympische Oden“ [1816]; Aischylos’ „Agamemnon“ [1816]; Über das vergleichende Sprachstudium in Beziehung auf die verschiedenen Epochen der Sprachentwicklung [1820]), with Anthopology (Über den Geschlechtsunterschied und dessen Einfluss auf die organische Natur [1794]; Über männliche und weibliche Form [1795]; Plan einer vergleichenden Anthropologie [1797]) and so on.

Possible themes for a precise and deep analysis refer to the relationship between political thought and:

  1. philosophical Anthropology;
  2. Aesthetics;
  3. History;
  4. Religion;
  5. Language study (Linguistics, Historical Linguistics);
  6. Philosophy

These themes represent the main aspects of Humboldt’s ideas and can be analyzed under different scientific points of view, with different methods and ways of thinking. It is not only a question of its development during Humboldt’s era, but also the call for papers aims at finding possible traces of Humboldt’s work in different periods of time and in particular authors, as for instance Stuart Mill, who cited Humboldt’s Ideen zu einem bestimmten Versuch, die Graenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen in his Preface to On Liberty (1859), or Noam Chomsky, whose linguistic theories developed Humboldt’s ideas on Language and Languages (linguistic universals, the idea of a language structure etc.) in new ways. The monographic issue on Humboldt’s political ideas searches for proposals and contributions that try to analyse it from a cross-cultural and comparative perspective. Contributions from the different disciplines that are involved in this reflection are welcome.

An abstract of 250-300 words must be sent by 30 November 2018 to editors email addresses: Giovanni Cogliandro (cogliandro@gmail.com ), Isabella Ferron (isabella.ferron@unipd.it)and Marco Ivaldo (marco.ivaldo@unina.it). Notification of acceptance will be sent by 31 December 2018.

Full papers of accepted abstracts cannot be longer than 40 000 characters (footnote and references included). They should be submitted by 30 April 2019and prepared for blind peer review.

The full paper must be submitted online via OJS – Open Journal System:

http://zetesis.cfs.unipi.it/Rivista/index.php/odradek/index

Authors can find submission guidelines at the following link:

http://zetesis.cfs.unipi.it/Rivista/index.php/odradek/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

All papers will be reviewed according to our peer review process policy:

http://zetesis.cfs.unipi.it/Rivista/index.php/odradek/about/editorialPolicies#peerReviewProcess

Languages: English, German, Italian.

Contact Information

isabella.ferron@gmail.com; isabella.ferron@unipd.it

Contact Email
isabella.ferron@gmail.com