Historically, the institution of slavery was the focus of a great deal of philosophical research. Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Mill, Wollstonecraft, Bentham, Locke, Rousseau, Paine, Wilberforce, Grotius, Pufendorf, Nietzsche, Marx, and many others, considered such topics as the definition of slavery, the rightness or wrongness of slavery, which sorts of people could or should be enslaved, and whether (and if so, when) they should be emancipated.
In recent years, by contrast, philosophers have shown little interest in slavery. This anthology seeks to remedy this by presenting new work on the philosophy of slavery and emancipation. Possible topics to be addressed include, but are not restricted to:
• What is slavery? How is slavery different from other forms of unfreedom/inequality/labour etc?
• What was mistaken about historical arguments for slavery?
• How do we best explain the wrongness of slavery? Why were the actions of slave owners, slave traders, or those involved in the initial enslavement, wrong?
• Do people not involved in slavery have obligations to oppose slavery?
• Are slaves who once consented to their own enslavement required to obey their masters? Do such masters have a right to such obedience? Should the state recognise, or even enforce, such contracts of slavery?
• What is the relationship between slavery and sexism/racism/ableism/heteronormativity etc?
• What is the relationship between slavery and bondage & discipline, or dominance & submission, or sadism & masochism?
• What do slave narratives tell us about the nature or wrongness of slavery or about the rightness of emancipation?
• What is emancipation?
• What does the history of emancipation tell us about contemporary abolitionism?
• Who can emancipate whom, when, and from what?
• Is emancipation all that is owed to slaves? Does the legacy of slavery and emancipation require further action?
The anthology will, in the first instance, be submitted to Cambridge University Press for possible inclusion in their new series, Slavery Since Emancipation. The description of this series can be found here.
Guidelines for submissions
• Deadline for submission of abstract (150-300 words): 1st December 2013
• Deadline for submission of paper: 1st February 2014
• Manuscripts should be in English and be between 6000 and 9000 words, including abstract, references and footnotes.
• They should be prepared for anonymous refereeing and sent by email attachment as a word document or pdf to both editors.
• They will be subject to a process of peer-review.
• Expected date for preliminary verdict on submitted papers: 31st July 2014
Editors
Nathaniel Adam Tobias
Simon Roberts-Thomson, serobertsthomson [at] gmail [dot] com
