Save
Online submission: Articles for publication in Culture and Dialogue can be submitted online through Editorial Manager. To submit an article, click here.

For more details on online submission, please visit our EM Support page.

Download Author Instructions (PDF)
Honorary Member
Tzvetan Todorov† (1939-2017)

Founding Editor
Gerald Cipriani

Editor-in-Chief
Martin Ovens, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Associate Editor
Loni Reynolds, University of Roehampton, United Kingdom

Manuscript Editor
Grant Dufrene, University College Dublin

Editorial Board
Pal Ahluwalia, UNESCO, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji
Åsa Andersson, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden
John Baldacchino, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Wim van Binsbergen, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Thorsten Botz‐Bornstein, Gulf University, Kuwait
Nino Chikovani, UNESCO, I. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Hannah Halle, University of Stirling, United Kingdom
Gereon Kopf, Luther College, Decorah, USA
Shail Mayaram, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, India
Kinya Nishi, Konan University, Kobe, Japan
Tanehisa Otabe, The Japan Academy, Japan
Giuseppe Patella, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
Daniel Raveh, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Ricardo Rozzi, University of North Texas, USA / Universidad de Magallanes (UMAG), Puerto Williams, Chile / Cape Horn International Center (CHIC), Chile Madhucchanda Sen, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
Dimitri Spivak, UNESCO, D.S.Likhachev Russian Scientific Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage, Moscow, Russia
Feng Su, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, PR China
William Sweet, St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Canada
Edwige Tamalet Talbayev, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA
Hubert Timmermans, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Cosimo Zene, SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom
Culture and Dialogue provides a forum for researchers from philosophy as well as other disciplines who study cultural formations dialogically, through comparative analysis, or within the tradition of hermeneutics. The journal publishes one volume of two issues each year. One issue welcomes manuscripts that consider the broad theme of “culture and dialogue” in all its forms, from all perspectives, and through all methods. The other issue is thematic and seeks to bring manuscripts together with a common denominator such as “Philosophy and the Dialogue,” “Art in Conversation,” “Comparing Cultures,” or “Dialogical Ethics.” The theme of the thematic issue is announced through dedicated calls for papers.

Call for Papers: Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence

Call for Papers, Special Issue: The Aesthetics and Ethics of the Toxic

Call for Proposals for Guest-Edited Thematic Special Issues


Call for Papers: Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence



The journal is currently seeking submissions on the philosophy of AI. Among relevant topics are:
-The nature of AI
-Computational Theory of Mind
-Strong and Weak AI
-Ethics of AI and robotics
-Surveillance and privacy
-Bias in decision systems
-Opacity
-Machine Ethics
-Consciousness
-Creativity
-Catastrophism
-Human/robot interaction and dialogue
-AI and philosophy of economics (employment, automation)
-AI and philosophy of education (teaching, learning)
-AI, art and aesthetics
-Non-western philosophical perspectives on AI
-Cultural and dialogical aspects
-AI and science-fiction
-The future of AI


Call for Papers, Special Issue: The Aesthetics and Ethics of the Toxic



The word ‘toxic’ gained traction around 2010 and soon became a buzzword. In 2018, the Oxford English Dictionary declared ‘toxic’ Word of the Year. ‘Toxic’ has become an unavoidable term firmly established in everyday speech, popular culture as well as in academic writings. There are a variety of reasons for this infatuation with the toxic. One could point out that our environment has quite literally become increasingly toxic: toxic air, toxic water, toxic fields, toxic food… Another major factor is the emergence of the internet , and this not merely because it has served as a medium to spread a term. Whether it be disgruntled employees or bored students, everyone has gained access to an increasing array of social media through which they can express opinions. Such activities can be positive but can also create a toxic atmosphere because problems are not brought forward directly and because the criticism is anonymous. The information culture that emerged in the 2000s through social media, mailing lists, and, later, chatrooms and chat software, often took on toxic forms as radical opinions could be amplified and verbal violence could “poison” our daily routine. Gaming communities are often rather infamous for having toxic cultures replete with trolling and insults.
“Toxic” environments have also arguably become more common under the pressure of social movements that attempt to better moderate behaviors, whether it be the #metoo movement or other similar movements that seek to rectify societal injustices (these are often associated with terms such as political correctness or wokeness). While such an awareness of ethical matters in society is certainly commendable, it is also a fact that social media’s echo-chambering has made people more intolerant towards disagreements. As a result, the perception of certain behaviors has evolved, and the breadth of acceptable behavior has shrunk, but not only in entirely healthy ways.
Basically, in its metaphorical understanding, “toxic” means “toxic atmosphere.” ‘Atmosphere’ is an extremely broad concept and, consequently, the meaning of the word ‘toxic’ is wide-ranging, too. Toxic elements are rarely explicit. Chemically speaking, toxins are dangerous because they cannot be neutralized by the body, which differentiates the toxic from biological agents such as viruses.
Can ‘toxic’ describe something that ‘evil’, ‘wicked’, ‘malicious’, ‘immoral’, ‘unscrupulous’, ‘unpleasant’, or ‘unfriendly’, cannot not grasp? The toxic is what stays in the air, it is static and cannot be neutralized or altered because it is not dynamic like a virus. The metaphorical toxic is sparked by elements in our environment (statements, objects, images, sounds) that we find incompatible with our own tastes, beliefs, convictions, or lifestyles, but that cannot be fought but only be escaped. We cannot simply develop “antibodies” to combat toxicity.

The special issue approaches toxicity from a philosophical angle by concentrating on the aesthetics and ethics of the toxic.

Aesthetics
The toxic is “aesthetic” because it is not clearly confined to certain objects but emerges between subject and object. Contrary to the poisonous, the toxic is always spatial. While the poison is a clearly defined, stable, distinct, and quasi-Cartesian quality that can be objectively assumed, with the toxic we move towards Kantian versions of subjectivism and from there to more muddled “postmodern” paradigms of perception that no longer care to distinguish between subject and object.

Ethics
Most writings on the unethical status of toxicity suggest that the remedy is a better ethics, applying age-old patterns of good and evil. However, does the phenomenon of the toxic not create new constellations? Can one conceive of an ethics that does not revolve around good and evil but instead around the toxic and the healthy? Victims of toxic environments participate in the toxic, are part of it, and often manifest a toxic behavior, too. The notion of the toxic relativizes the Manichean divisions between good and evil as well as the division between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The toxic does not assume an intentionality that presupposes the existence of the poisoner, or even of a poisoned subject or object. It does not have a punctual character but is instead a “field” without clearly fixed boundaries.

Authors can also approach topics such as toxic positivity, toxic conspiracies, toxic wokeness (cancel culture), toxic religiosity, or the internet and radicalization.

Online submission by March 1, 2025 (go to "Submit Article" tab)


Call for Proposals for Guest-Edited Thematic Special Issues



Other examples of topics that fall within the scope of the journal: -Dialogical encounters: theories and practices
-Cultures of sameness and otherness from a variety of perspectives (Eastern, African, Western, Indian, etc.)
-Reflections on cross-cultural formations within a particular field (philosophical, artistic, anthropological, social, religious, political, psychological, scientific, etc.)
-The idea of interculturality from within the traditions of interpretive or analytic philosophies

Examples of previous Special Issues:
-French Thought in Dialogue
-Confucianism: Comparisons and Controversies
-African Thought and Dialogue
-Dialogue and Globalisation

If you are interested in guest editing a special issue with us, please send a brief proposal + academic CV to martin.ovens@wolfson-oxford.com.

The Guest Editor(s) will be responsible for the entire editorial process of the Special Issue.
The publication date will be decided upon agreement once proposals are accepted.

International Research Group for Culture and Dialogue
Culture and Dialogue is endorsed by the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, Their Specific Cultures and Interreligious Dialogue
Humanities International Index
Humanities Source
Humanities Source Ultimate
PhilPapers
The Philosopher’s Index
Web of Science
The central theme of the Journal is cultural dialogue in all its forms. Because of its broad scope and relative non-technical nature, the Journal is suitable to all academic institutions at all levels of study, libraries and good bookshops across the English-speaking world and beyond.
Our Honorary Member Tzvetan Todorov passed away on the 7th February 2017. It is with great sadness that we learned of the news. Professor Todorov had been supportive of the Culture and Dialogue project from the outset. As a historian, philosopher, aesthetician, and literary critic he witnessed and reflected upon many of the good and bad things our modern world offered—and continues to offer. In one way or another the nature and possibility of the dialogue was always for him a central question to address, should we take the time and the trouble to think of how to bring out the best in the human condition. One thing that the cycles of life cannot take away from us is learning from the spirit of the dialogue that Tzvetan Todorov conveyed. The cruelty of death will never prevent us from transmitting to our fellow human beings what he called “that fragile legacy, those words that help us live a better life.”

Culture and Dialogue

Editor-in-Chief:
Martin Ovens
Search for other papers by Martin Ovens in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Culture and Dialogue is an international peer-reviewed journal of cross-cultural philosophy and humanities that is published semi-annually and electronically only as of 2024. The journal seeks to encourage and promote research in the type of philosophy and theory that sees dialogue as a fundamental ingredient of cultural formations, that is to say the ways cultures become apparent and ultimately identifiable. What is meant here by culture is a particular manifestation of human achievement in the arts, languages, forms of expression (whether secular or religious), and customs of all kinds including political ones.

Dialogue, in this context, means a mode of relationship that lets cultural formations unfold by bringing together human beings and, for example, their natural environment, their historical past, traditions, external cultural influences, contemporary trends, other communities, or simply other persons in conversation.

Culture and Dialogue provides a forum for researchers from philosophy as well as other disciplines, who study cultural formations dialogically, through comparative analysis, or within the tradition of hermeneutics. The journal publishes one volume of two issues electronically each year. The first issue welcomes manuscripts that consider the theme of culture and dialogue in all its forms, from all perspectives, and through all methods. The second issue seeks to bring manuscripts together with a common denominator such as “Philosophy and the Dialogue,” “Art in Conversation,” “Comparing Cultures,” or “Dialogical Ethics.” The language of the journal is English, but submissions in other languages including German, Chinese, French and Japanese may be considered for guest-edited issues.

The journal does not necessarily endorse the views expressed or the facts presented by authors in their essays or in the works cited.

Culture and Dialogue is endorsed by the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, Their Specific Cultures and Interreligious Dialogue. The journal is also the publishing platform of the International Research Group for Culture and Dialogue (website: IRGCD).
  • Online only
    €216.00$250.00
  • To place an order, please contact customerservices@brill.com
  • Online only
    €71.00$84.00
  • To place an order, please contact customerservices@brill.com

Latest Articles

Author:
Restricted Access
Le quasi-panpsychisme de Nishida Kitarō à la lumière de Gustav Theodor Fechner
Nishida Kitarō’s Quasi-Panpsychism in the Light of Gustav Theodor Fechner
Restricted Access
Co-Présences, Hospitalités et Mutualités
Co-presence, Hospitality and Mutuality : Gerhard A. Rauche, German South African Philosopher and Thinker of Coexistence of Communities
Gerhard A. Rauche, un philosophe germano- sud-africain penseur de la coexistence des communautés
Author:
Restricted Access
La communauté méditerranéenne comme utopie du dépassement de l’anthropocène ?
The Mediterranean Community as Utopia to Overcome the Anthropocene: Questions and Possibilities
Author:
Restricted Access
La notion de soi chez l’alcoolique : altérité et ipséité
The Sense of Self in the Alcoholic: Alterity and Ipseity
Free access