Presentation to “Feminine perspectives in philosophical thought”

Marcos Antonio Alves[1]

As part of the celebrations of its 50th anniversary, Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp Journal of Philosophy, launches a call to bring together publications around feminine perspectives in philosophical thought. To be included in this section, complying with one of the following requirements, the texts must:

1. Be a text of philosophical content or interest in which the first author is female, preferably from the humanities area.

2. Portray, as a central theme, the philosopher’s thoughts, or deal, for example, with issues of gender, feminism, sexualities.

With this call, we seek to bring together texts on the topic in question, giving them greater visibility. We also aim to contribute to the increase the women’s participation in philosophical thought, whether with female authors in texts or with references to their thoughts, in Brazil and abroad. Furthermore, we aim to encourage interdisciplinary debate and advancement of knowledge in the area, being a means of promoting equal opportunities in the socialization of knowledge and respect for the different trends of knowledge, in all areas of philosophy, as part of our mission.

Articles must follow the same submission criteria as the journal and go through the same double-blind peer review evaluation process.

As the journal adopts continuous flow publishing now, approved articles will be published individually, as soon as they go through all the review and editing processes. The deadline for submissions is JUNE 30th, 2024. Submissions must be made via the website: https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/about/submissions. Mark the section: “Female perspectives in philosophical thought: articles”.

This is another practice of Trans/Form/Ação that seeks to reduce inequalities. In recent years, in addition to looking for evaluators to issue opinions on texts, we have also sought to equalize the number of women and men on the editorial board and in the production of comments. On other fronts, we have also increased participation in the journal by researchers from the southern hemisphere, especially from Latin America and Africa.

In recent years, we have started a series of partnerships to publish dossiers, aiming to disseminate common themes between texts, intending to contribute to the advancement and socialization of knowledge, especially in its dissemination, favoring the reduction of inequalities, be it gender, race or geographic distribution.

In 2020, we published a thematic issue on Philosophy(ies) in the 20th Century, aimed at Western thought, centered on the northern hemisphere. The following year, in partnership with the Center for Philosophy, Politics and Culture, based at the University of Évora, Portugal, we published the “Dossier Philosophy of Technique and Technology”. In the same year, in partnership with Federal University of Bahia, we published the “Dossier Ernest Sosa”, a tribute to the thinker in question, with an article by the honoree himself, already encouraging the participation of thinkers from the southern hemisphere on the topic. In 2022, in partnership with Federal University of Pernambuco, via the Institute of African Studies at the Federal University of Pernambuco, we published a dossier on the thought of the Southern Hemisphere, called “Philosophies of the South: between Africa and Latin America”. In partnership with publishers from the East, we published two editions, one in 2022 and another in 2023, on Eastern Philosophy. In 2023, we published the dossier “Brazilian authorial philosophy”, divided into two volumes. For 2024, we are publishing the thematic section “Feminine perspectives in philosophical thought”.

The difference between this section and the others, in addition to its content and focus on promoting the publication of texts by female authors, is the method of publication. From 2024, the journal will adopt a continuous flow publication. Thus, texts can be published individually, as they are ready for publication, after having gone through all the revisions, editing, standardization and XML conversion phases. With this, we seek to further reduce the time interval between the approval of articles and their publication. This is another of the innovations of the journal, seeking respect and consideration for our partners’ demands.

We hope that, with this project, we can continue contributing to the advancement of knowledge, the reduction of inequalities and to the debate without prejudice. We invite you to access our page, accessing our publications, and make your submissions to the journal.

The first article is “The main aspects of asceticism and repentance in the work of “Pratum” by John Moschus”, by Atanasia Mariia Smetaniak. The theme of repentance is eternal for Christians, remembers Smetaniak. Almost all the Holy Fathers touched upon it with necessity and called to resort to this miraculous preparation given by the Church. It also runs like a red thread through the work of Pratum by John Moschus. The purpose of this study is to analyze the work of Pratum by John Moschus, which touches upon the theme of repentance and the main aspects of asceticism. The paper aims to identify the main characteristics of monastic life associated with ascetic practices of primitive monasticism described in the work. The study focuses on the addressees of the work, namely the monks for whom the work was written, and the topics about ascetic practices, the importance and necessity of repentance and the action of divine grace in human life. The study intends to ensure that these themes and practices are inherited by other generations and do not lose their relevance.

Next, we publish “Spiritual continuity of Abai’s and Blaise Pascal’s ideas (Abai’s words of edification, B. Pascal’s thoughts)” authored by Anel Yeszhanova and Garifolla Esim. The authors’ purpose is to identify the similarity of Abai’s and B. Pascal’s views regarding the categorical apparatus, key ideas and specifics of the presentation. In the course of the study of this question, the historical-philosophical approach was chosen because of the need to study the core works in the context of the world’s history of thought. Hermeneutics was chosen to be the main method, which allows the free analysis and interpretation of texts, revealing their content from the perspective of non-classical forms of rationality. The eclectic method, together with general scientific analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalization in a complex, allows drawing parallels easily between directly unrelated sources and concepts. In the article, the belonging of Abai and B. Pascal’s philosophy to cordocentrism is determined, the categories of “heart”, “reason”, “will”, “faith”, “science” and their interconnection are revealed, and the scope of genre affiliation of thinkers is expanded.

The third article is “Aesthetic and philosophical searches of Stanislav Shumytskyi's work in the cultural-historical process of the 60s of the 20th century”, by Valentyna M. Kryvenchuk. The author’s purpose is to study the creative development, the aesthetic and the philosophical searches of Stanislav Shumytskyi’s work within the cultural and historical process of the 60s of the 20th century. The basis of the methodological approach in this research work is a complex systematic study, which is based on a qualitative combination of theoretical research methods. In particular, analysis, synthesis, generalization, interpretation, abstraction, as well as descriptive, comparative, juxtaposition method, comparative-historical method, intertextual method, in particular its intermedial principles, were applied for a detailed consideration of Stanislav Shumytskyi’s work. This research highlights Stanislav Shumytskyi's unique aesthetic and philosophical pursuits in the 1960s cultural-historical milieu. Emphasis is laid on relevance of Shumytskyi's creative legacy for contemporary literature. The study enriches understanding of the cultural climate in the period, especially regarding the Ukrainian Sixtiers movement.

We hope that these texts will have a good impact and we will soon publish new texts and comments in this issue.

Received: 25/09/2023

Approved: 30/09/2023

Published: 10/10/2023

Notes

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Editor of Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of Philosophy. Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Postgraduate Program in Philosophy at São Paulo State University (UNESP), Marília, SP – Brazil and Leader of the Study Group in Philosophy of Information, Mind and Epistemology – GEFIME (CNPq/UNESP). CNPq Researcher. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5704-5328. E-mail: marcos.a.alves@unesp.br.

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