Dear members,

During 2020 the GIP launched a new lecture series. Given the serious situation of Covid-19 pandemic we would like to take advantage of the general necessity to communicate digitally. A digital lecture format allows members from all over the world to participate; also this gives us the chance to invite speakers from around the globe more easily. We very much invite all of you to join the monthly lectures and make this a forum for lively discussion!

2025

-Wednesday, 29^th January 2025, 6 pm CET (=UTC+1); online

Prof. Carlos Sanchez, Philosophy, San José State University, CA, USA:

“A Question of Dignity: Emilio Uranga Against the Arrogance of Western Traditions”

-Wednesday, 26th March., 6 pm:

Ass. Prof. Marília de Nardin Budó, Rechtswissenschaft, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil.

"Environmental Restorative Justice Beyond Modernity's Colonial and Ecological Divides"

To participate please send a short notice to niels.weidtmann@ciis.uni-tuebingen.de before the day of the lecture. The lecture will be given via zoom. A zoom-link will be sent to all those who registered.

Time: 7PM (Germany)

Following GIP-lectures will be announced shortly. For updated and more information about the past lectures HERE. GIP-lectures are organised by Dr. Niels Weidtmann, Dr. Anke Graness and Fernando Wirtz.

Stay healthy!

Niels Weidtmann, President

The “Declaration on Philosophy and Interculturality” (informally known as “The Barletta Declaration”) was composed in response to an invitation from the G7 Summit in Italy to provide a document discussing some of the pressing philosophical issues facing the G7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States) and the European Union. The Declaration was drafted in Barletta, Italy, over 23-24 May 2024, by a group of leading scholars who came to attend an International Philosophy Summit on the topic of “Conviviality and Dialogue among People.”

Read the statement HERE

GIP congratulates its honorary president Dr. Ram Adhar Mall for this recognition.

"A pioneer of Intercultural Philosophy, Professor Mall was recognized for his contribution to the intercultural exchange between India and Germany. Professor Mall is the Founder and President of the global 'Society for Intercultural Philosophy' and serves as a co-editor for the publication 'Studies on Intercultural Philosophy'."

Full article HERE

Mit großer Sorge und Betroffenheit hat der Vorstand der GIP die terroristischen Angriffe auf den Staat Israel wahrgenommen. Unser Mitgefühl und unsere Solidarität gilt allen Opfern der Gewalttaten und ihren Angehörigen. Unsere Hoffnung richtet sich darauf, dass in dieser schlimmen Eskalation, deren Ausmaße noch nicht absehbar sind, keine Zivilist*innen in Israel und Gaza mehr ihr Leben verlieren, dass elementare Grundsätze der Mitmenschlichkeit eingehalten werden und eine friedliche Lösung der jahrzehntealten Konflikte gefunden werden kann.

Vorstand, GIP

It is with great concern and dismay that the board members of the Society for Intercultural Philosophy (GIP) have been following the terrorist attacks on the State of Israel. Our solidarity go out to is with all victims of the acts of violence and their families. Our hope is that in this terrible escalation, the extent of which is not yet foreseeable, no more civilians in Israel and Gaza will lose their lives, that elementary principles of humanity will be respected and that a peaceful solution to these long-standing conflicts can be found.

Board members, GIP

Facetten gegenwärtiger Bildtheorie. Interdisziplinäre und interkulturelle Perspektiven, herausgegeben von Sergej Seitz, Anke Graneß und Georg Stenger ist als erster Band der neuen Schriftenreihe der GIP (Reihe interkulturelle Philosophie) vor Kurzem beim Springer-Verlag erschienen.

Conference Announcements:

● Lecture Series 2025: Philosophizing in African Languages

Thursdays, 2 p.m. (CEST) | Live Streaming & On-Site: Cultural Campus, Aula

The mutual influence of language and philosophizing has been a topic of debate for centuries. Do languages determine how we think? Do certain languages suggest certain thought constellations? Is translation a universal language?

To this theoretical debate, we want to respond with concrete examples of philosophizing in African languages. The African continent is home to more than 3.000 languages. With European colonization, most of these languages have been marginalized in academic discourses at the expense of English, French, and Portuguese.

Nevertheless, philosophy exists and has been existing for several thousand years in Indigenous African languages and deserves our attention. Taking polylogue as a point of departure as a philosophical method, we invite philosophers from around the world to introduce us to specific forms of philosophizing in Africa. These include ancient traditions of philosophizing as recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs or Ethiopian manuscripts written in Ge’ez, as well as contemporary practices of philosophizing in Sesotho, Kinyarwanda, or Yorùbá.

April 17, 2025

Mogobe Ramose (University of South Africa): The Speaking Human Being (homo loquens) Precedes the Writing Human Being (homo scriptans). An ubu-ntu Perspective on Dialogue among World Philosophies

April 24, 2025

Rolf Elberfeld (Hildesheim University): Philosophy and the Plurality of Languages

May 8, 2025

Kai Kresse (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient) & Abdilatif Abdallah (Leipzig University):  Swahili Philosophical Discourse in East African Lifeworlds. Introductory Reflections and Case Studies from Contemporary Poetry

May 15, 2025

Ousmane Kane (Harvard Divinity School): The Islamic Archive and Intellectual History in Sub-Saharan Africa

May 22, 2025

Monika Rohmer (Hildesheim University): Wrestling with Philosophy.  Mbër as a Point of Departure for Analyzing Philosophical Texts in Wolof

June 5, 2025

Amr El Hawary (University of Bonn): The Language of Glyphosophia: Philosophical Concepts in Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Culture

June 19, 2025

Richmond Kwesi (University of Ghana): A Genetic-Analytic Approach to Philosophizing in Akan

June 26, 2025

Abosede Ipadeola (Hildesheim University): Philosophizing in Yorùbá. Exploring a People’s Weltanschauung

July 3, 2025

Chantal Gishoma (University of Bayreuth): La poétique du non-humain chez Alexis Kagame. Une philosophie de la résistance (Alexis Kagame’s poetics of the non-human: A philosophy of resistance)

Kayisabe Védaste (St Thomas Aquinas Seminary Kabyagi): La parole comme expression épistémologique dans la philosophie d’Alexis Kagame (Speech as an epistemological expression in Alexis Kagame’s philosophy)

July 10, 2025

Fasil Merawi  (Addis Ababa University) &  Jonathan Egid (SOAS University of London): The Linguistic Politics of Ethiopian Philosophy. Navigating Tradition, Modernity, and Globalization between Ge’ez, Amharic and English

July 17, 2025

Anke Graness (Hildesheim University): Philosophizing in African Languages: Past, Present, Future

March 18–22, 2025

Hildesheim University

More Info HERE

Meine, Deine, unsere Vernunft?
My, your, our reason?
Kooperationstagung der Association Internationale des Professeurs de Philosophie (AIPPh), der
Wiener Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Philosophie (WiGIP) und das Institut für Wissenschaft und
Kunst (IWK)/ Co-operation conference of the Association Internationale des Professeurs de
Philosophie (AIPPh), the Vienna Society for Intercultural Philosophy (WiGIP) and the Institute for
Science and Art (IWK). Supported by: Vienna Doctoral School of Philosophy.
21./22. März 2025, Universität Wien/University Vienna
Ort/Venue: Dekanatssaal der Theolog. Fakultät, Hauptgebäude Universität Wien

Download Program HERE

Rolf Elberfeld, Sool Park, Anke Graneß

Eröffnung und Vorstellung der Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe mit anschließendem Empfang

Katrin Wille

Philosophie als Praxis des Unterscheidens

Alena Rettová

Language in African Philosophy

Albert Kasanda

Towards a Decolonial Political Philosophy

Andreas Hetzel

Philosophie als „Arbeit an einem selbst“ und an Beziehungen zu anderen

Abosede Ipadeola

Feminist African Philosophy: New Issues and Perspectives

Edwin Etieyibo / Hanétha Vété-Congolo

An African-Caribbean Dialogue on Philosophy

Tilman Borsche

Was konnte, kann und könnte „philosophieren“ heißen und bedeuten?

Sool Park (Antrittsvorlesung)

(Un)übersetzbar:

Was ist die Sprache der Philosophie?

Abbed Kanoor

Rethinking Philosophy

with Fabian Eboussi Boulaga

Lars Leeten

Skeptisches Philosophieren

Tanella Boni

Poetry and Philosophy: Where is the Frontier?

Wilfred Lajul

he Relevance of Proverbs in African Philosophy: Philosophizing from an African Perspective

Podiumsdiskussion zur Philosophie in einer globalisierten Welt

mit geladenen Gästen

Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe Philosophieren in einer globalisierten Welt

Annual Conference of the Society for Intercultural Philosophy (GIP)

Organized by Niels Weidtmann and Abbed Kanoor

More info HERE

Download the program HERE

CALL FOR PAPERS

Annual Conference of the Society for Intercultural Philosophy (GIP)

“Topoi, Places, and Spaces in an Intercultural Perspective”

May 9-11, 2024

University of Tübingen

Languages: English

Deadline for submission of abstracts: January 31, 2024

The study and intercultural comparison of topoi, places, and spaces are of great importance for intercultural philosophy: (i) Intercultural thought itself can be described as a topographical one, building on European philosophy's stronger turn to space in the second half of the 20th century. (ii) Differently designed places and spaces may open up new and non-text-based accesses to other cultural life-worlds.

1. While in the first half of the 20th century the focus of European philosophy was rather on reflections about time and temporality (Bergson, Husserl, Heidegger), the passage to the second half of the 20th century is accompanied by a shift from a focus on time to the relevance of topos and spatiality (Merleau-Ponty, Blanchot, Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida). Parallel to the new relevance of topos and spatiality in philosophy, the birth of structuralism and structuralist anthropology marks the 1960s, where the question of topos gains anthropological and cultural importance. To this topological interest comes the process of decentralisation. The backlash of postcolonial movements awakens national/indigenous self-consciousness as situated “we”. The way the Negritude movement marks the African thought in 1960s and 1970s shows strongly the necessity of “other locations from which thinking could start” (Eboussi Boulaga). Comparable philosophical thematization of topos and location of thought have also been outlined in other geographies and languages, as for example in the Arabic speaking world (Abed al-Jabri). The process of decentralisation is an important counterpart of the cultural turn. If the homogeneously imagined and measurable space is the signum of modernity and its idea of globality, we are currently experiencing a return to a multiplicity of situated forms of life and lived spaces. This is strongly being discussed in anthropology (e. g. in the so called "ontological turn": Viveiros de Castro, Descola, Holbraad) and in relation to the critique of the nature-culture divide in literature and science & technology studies, feminist theory, and critical posthumanism (Butler, Haraway). However, these approaches often lack an eye for the historical depth and intellectual-historical significance of the respective spaces, including the homogeneously imagined space of modernity. This highlights the importance of interdisciplinary exchange on these issues.
2. Images and artworks, as well as architecture and even landscapes, provide a unique access to cultural traditions and their thinking. Watsuji`s famous study on climatic influences on humanity is an early example for this, but also with respect to arts and architecture this has already been shown (latest by Descola in his Les forms du visible) – and particularly well so with reference to East-Asia (Suzuki, Ohashi, Obert). However, the relational structure of spaces and places to cultural traditions becomes relevant also the other way around. This is most obvious with respect to environmental issues. In environmental studies non-Western approaches become more and more relevant. This is true with respect to the acknowledgement of Amerindian epistemologies already mentioned above but it is also the case with respect to African epistemologies which raise inspiring alternative paths of thought. Finally, eco-phenomenology (Toadvine, Brown), rhizomatic and nomadic thinking (Deleuze & Guattari), and religious studies contribute to the discussion of lived spaces.

However, these different strands of thought have so far hardly been brought together and made fruitful for intercultural philosophy. We would like to make up for this with our conference.

Abstracts for presentations of 20 min are invited for one of the following six sections:

• Dwelling, Belonging, and Phenomenology of Spatiality
• Nomadic Thought, Imaginary Geography, Utopia and Dystopia
• Aesthetics, Architecture, and Landscapes
• Knowledges of Ecology
• Decoloniality and Global History
• Religious Places and Spatiality in Religion

Please send an abstract of 500 words max. to abbed.kanoor ( AT ) ciis.uni-tuebingen.de. Deadline is    January 31^st 2024. Please indicate in which section you would prefer to speak. Please also send a short bio. Successful applicants will be notified by early February.

The conference is planned as a face-to-face event with some hybrid components.

PD Dr. Niels Weidtmann

Society for Intercultural Philosophy (GIP)

President

University of Tübingen

Programm HIER

Die GIP ist erschüttert vom Angriffskrieg Putins auf die Ukraine. Wir fordern Putin dazu auf, den Krieg sofort zu beenden und alle Truppen aus der Ukraine zurückzuziehen. Die staatliche Souveränität der Ukraine und der Frieden in Europa müssen geachtet werden. Wir solidarisieren uns mit dem ukrainischen Volk, aber ebenso mit den vielen Menschen in Russland, die den Krieg ablehnen. Die GIP solidarisiert sich insbesondere mit den russischen Wissenschaftler*innen, die in einem offenen Brief gegen den Krieg protestieren.

Brief auf Deutsch:

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/offener-brief-russische-wissenschaftler-wenden-sich-gegen-putin-17833982.html.

Brief auf Russisch

https://trv-science.ru/2022/02/we-are-against-war/

The SIP is shocked by Putin's war of aggression on Ukraine. We call on Putin to end the war immediately and withdraw all troops from Ukraine. Ukraine's state sovereignty and peace in Europe must be respected. We stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, but equally with the many people in Russia who reject the war. The SIP is in particular solidarity with the Russian scientists who protest against the war in an open letter

Letter in German:

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/offener-brief-russische-wissenschaftler-wenden-sich-gegen-putin-17833982.html.

In Russian:

https://trv-science.ru/2022/02/we-are-against-war/

Die Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Philosophie (GIP) wurde 1992 als gemeinnütziger Verein gegründet und hat inzwischen Mitglieder in allen Erdteilen, die gemeinsam an der Sache der Interkulturellen Philosophie arbeiten. Es gilt die engen Schranken der eigenen kulturellen Bedingtheiten im Philosophieren zu öffnen und sich sowohl systematisch als auch historisch im gegenseitigen Austausch mit den philosophischen Bemühungen anderer, zunächst fremder Kulturen auseinander zusetzen.

Die GIP und ihre Schwestergesellschaften veranstalten zu diesem Zweck regelmäßig Tagungen und Kongresse; außerdem wird die Diskussion in zahlreichen Publikationen geführt. Die Mitglieder der GIP bemühen sich darüber hinaus, das Anliegen der Interkulturalität in Vorträgen, in Forschung und Lehre und in Diskussionsrunden bekannt zu machen. Gesprächskreise finden auf regionaler Ebene statt.