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Borderless Philosophy’s Editorial Team is pleased to announce a First Call for Submissions for our ninth issue (2026), on the special topic:
“We Were Supposed to Be Self-Guided: The Fate of Autonomy in The Present Era.”
TOPIC DESCRIPTION:
In “The Aufklaerung Song,” the philosophically-minded rock band Johannes Faustus sang: “We were supposed to be self-guided. But where did our reason go?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er56ksTGRxU
What’s happened to our autonomy in the present era—sometimes called an “Age of Disillusionment,” in which we see the re-emergence of nationalism, authoritarianism, and fascism, the decline of democracy, ecological disaster, and an obsession with digital technology, especially including AI—and what can be done about it? BP seeks incisive critical analyses and innovative philosophical suggestions about how best to actualize the Enlightenment promise of individual and collective autonomy in our contemporary and near-future context.
All submitted essays or other works exploring issues or problems directly relevant to any aspect of this special topic, whether from a metaphysical, epistemic, psychological, ethical/moral, or sociopolitical point of view, will be considered.
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Borderless Philosophy is a highly progressive online, universal free-access philosophy journal that publishes works of philosophy without any in-principle restrictions whatsoever as to length, philosophical content or topic (unless submissions are restricted under a special topic), presentational format, or language.
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BP’S EDITORIAL TEAM:
Dennis Earl (Coastal Carolina Univ., USA) https://www.coastal.edu/academics/facultyprofiles/humanities/philosophyandreligiousstudies/dennisearl/,
Robert Hanna (Independent, CA) (Editorial Team Co-Leader) https://roberthanna.academia.edu/,
Andreas Keller (Independent, DE) https://independent.academia.edu/AndreasKeller7,
Michelle Maiese (Emmanuel College, USA) http://www.emmanuel.edu/academics/our-faculty/michelle-maiese.html,
Otto Paans (Independent, NL) https://tu-berlin.academia.edu/OttoPaans, and
George Saad (Triton College, USA) https://tritoncollege.academia.edu/GeorgeSaad, <gsaad@mun.ca>.
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BP’S PREVIOUS ISSUES:
BP8 (2025) appeared in June 2025.
BP7 (2024) appeared in June 2024.
BP6 (2023) appeared in June 2023.
BP5 (2022) appeared in June 2022.
BP4 (2021) appeared in June 2021.
BP3 (2020) appeared in June 2020.
BP2 (2019) appeared in June 2019.
BP1 (2018) appeared in June 2018.
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Deadline for Submissions for BP9 (2026): 1 January 2026.
Please send your submissions to: <philosophywithoutborders1@gmail.com>.
And please submit your work as a Word-file, if practicable.
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During January 2026 your work will be reviewed by three members of Borderless Philosophy’s six-person Editorial Team, and considered for publication in our ninth issue, which is slated to appear in June 2026.
Borderless Philosophy’s only criteria of selection are (i) that the work be of genuine interest to philosophers or any other philosophically-minded person, and (ii) that the work be generally accessible to non-academics as well as professional academics, with a minimum of scholarly apparatus.
Borderless Philosophy’s reviewing policies and procedures in the selection phase are single-blind, author-centered, and responsible.
This means that: (i) your identity will not be revealed to the three-person selection team during the selection process, (ii) the selection team will review your submission, make a decision, and inform you of that decision by 1 February 2026, and (iii) if your work is deselected, you’ll also receive a short letter from the selection team spelling out their reasons for deselection, and making friendly suggestions for improvement and revision.
Selected works will move on to the work-shopping phase, editing, and finally publication in Borderless Philosophy 9 (2026) during June 2026.
Borderless Philosophy publishes here: https://www.cckp.space/, in English, but also in any other language, alongside English translations—with the translations to be arranged by authors, but curated by our Editorial Team.
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Borderless Philosophy is a sub-project of the online mega-project PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT BORDERS, an online mega-project for creating and sharing original philosophy, all of them freely available to anyone, anywhere, world-wide.
PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT BORDERS is home-based on Patreon, here: https://www.patreon.com/philosophywithoutborders. Please consider becoming a patron!
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You can also download and save or share a .pdf of this Call for Submissions by clicking on the Download table directly below.