The editor soliciting abstracts for a book on Jonathan Swift and Philosophy (Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield).
Although Jonathan Swift is one of the most well-known authors of the English language, this prolific and original writer is still little understood, and hence remains underestimated. Most people see in his Gulliver鈥檚 Travels nothing more but a delightful children鈥檚 book. His other writings are either unheard of or being dismissed as overly ridiculous or stemming from a misanthropy bordering on the pathological, as, for instance, his scatological poems. This, however, doesn鈥檛 do justice to the abilities of the author and the range of his work.
The aim of the volume is to place key texts of Swift in their various philosophical and cultural contexts and to thereby disclose their rich philosophical content. This book aims mainly at academics and grad students and is meant to be a serious academic contribution.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
– Platonic government in Brobdingnag
– Lilliput, Blefuscu, and the idea of tolerance
– Yahoos and animal ethics: What do we owe non-human beings?
– Gulliver and the houyhnhnms, or: can speciesism be justified?
– Utilitarianism in the country of the houyhnhnms
– A tale of a tub, or: finding the golden means
– 鈥淎n argument against abolishing Christianity鈥�, or what do we need religion for?
– Laputa and the ethics of science
– Balnibari and the threats of technology
– The academy of Lagado and the foundations of science
– The Struldbruggs and bioethics, or: who wants to live forever?
– Lilliputian philosophy of law: punish or reward?
– 鈥淭he battle of the books鈥� and the idea of progress
– 鈥淚n a lady鈥檚 dressing room鈥� 鈥� Swift and gender
– Socratic irony in Swift
– Gulliver and Schopenhauer: the philosophy of pessimism
– Philosophy of education in Lilliput
Please send an abstract (100-200 words) and a short CV by 1 December to Janelle.Poetzsch@rub.de