Call For Papers
“Athena: Philosophical Studies”, no. 20, 2025
Thematic Issue “The Human Condition in the Anthropocene” (editors: Audronė Žukauskaitė, Egidijus Mardosas)
The term “the Anthropocene” was popularised by E. Stoermer and P. Crutzen in 2000, who argued that humanity’s impact on Earth’s geology and ecology has exceeded the impact of natural processes and constitutes a new geological epoch. The Anthropocene Working Group was established in 2009, seeking official recognition of the Anthropocene within the Geological Time Scale. The idea of the Anthropocene soon got a second life within the humanities and social sciences, encouraging rethinking the human condition in the new geological and climatic regime (Chakrabarty 2015). On the other hand, philosophy has interrogated the idea of the Anthropocene, criticising its emphasis on humanity as such (the Anthropos) and bringing to light power relations, oppressions and exclusions that structure socially unequal ecological impacts. Over the years, these debates have caused a proliferation of various alternative terms to conceptualise humanity’s geological and ecological condition: Capitalocene (Moore 2016), Plantationocene (Haraway et al. 2015), Wasteocene (Armiero 2021), Chthulucene (Haraway 2016), Necrocene (McBrien 2016), Growthocene (Chertkovskaya and Paulsson 2016), Neganthropocene (Stiegler 2018), Novacene (Lovelock 2019) and many others. In the beginning of 2024, however, the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy voted against officially recognising the Anthropocene as the geological epoch, prompting discussions on the future of this idea in the Earth sciences. “Athena: philosophical studies” no. 20 invites a similar reflection on the idea of the Anthropocene in philosophy from a dual perspective: on the one hand, appreciating how the idea of the Anthropocene has influenced the debates on “the human condition”; on the other, reflecting on how these philosophical engagements have in turn questioned the idea of the Anthropocene itself.
Abstract (around 300 words) submission deadline: 15 March 2025. Please include your name, affiliation and contact information.
Article (5000-7000 words) submission deadline: 15 September 2025. Please follow the journal Author Guidelines .
E-mail: zukauskaite.audrone@gmail.com; egidijus.mardosas@gmail.com