CALL FOR PAPERS

Book Symposium

Abstract: Mono no Aware and Gender as Affect in Japanese Aesthetics and American Pragmatism places the naturalistic pragmatism of John Dewey in conversation with Motoori Norinaga’s mono no aware, a Japanese aesthetic theory of experience, to examine gender as a felt experience of an aware, or an affective quality of persons. By treating gender as an affect, Johnathan Charles Flowers argues that the experience of gendering and being gendered is a result of the affective perception of the organization of the body in line with cultural aesthetics embodied in Deweyan habit or Japanese kata broadly understood as culturally mediated transactions with the world. On this view, how the felt sense of identity aligns with the affective organization of society determines the nature of the possible social transactions between individuals. As such, this book intervenes in questions of personhood broadly—and identity specifically—by treating personhood itself as an affective sense. In doing so, this book demonstrates how questions of personhood and identity are themselves affective judgments. By treating gender and other identities as aware, this book advocates an expanded recognition of the how to be in the world through cultivating new ways of perceiving the affective organization of persons. 

Author Bio: Johnathan Flowers is assistant professor of philosophy at California State University, Northridge. 

Guest Editor:  Rick Anthony Furtak is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Colorado College. His philosophical interests include the moral psychology of the emotions, the relations between philosophy and literature, and existential thought (especially Søren Kierkegaard and his legacy). 

Journal of Philosophy of Emotion

The Journal of Philosophy of Emotion (JPE) is planning to publish a book symposium on Dr Johnathan Flowers' book, Mono no Aware and Gender as Affect in Japanese Aesthetics and American Pragmatism, and we are looking for commentators who are interested in engaging in a critical discussion of it, with the aim of moving the discourse on relevant topics highlighted by his book forward. 

Interested commentators should please email a complete draft of their commentary (approximately 3,000 words), along with their CV, to kayleightimmer[dot]jpe[at]gmail[dot]com by February 28, 2025. Please include "Mono no Aware, Johnathan Flowers" in the subject line of the email. Interested commentators who require a copy of Mono no Aware and Gender as Affect in Japanese Aesthetics and American Pragmatism can also email kayleightimmer[dot]jpe[at]gmail[dot]com to request one. 

We will contact you by March 28, 2025, with a decision and any further details. 

Please refer to past issues of the JPE for examples, and all submissions must adhere to the JPE's style guidelines. All contributors are also responsible for copyediting their own submissions and providing any requested citation information, although the JPE will also conduct a preliminary review and copyedit check of all accepted submissions.

We encourage a diversity of scholars of all ranks who are interested in participating as commentators to respond to this CFP, provided that they are willing and able to commit to fulfilling the expectations of our double-anonymous peer review process. Please note that commentators will be selected not only based on their qualifications and commentary, but also on considerations for the value of diversity and inclusiveness among qualified commentators, and a scholar's qualification will be judged based on the quality of the commentaries submitted. Potential contributors are also welcome to let us know that they would be willing to referee the composed book symposium if, for some reason, they were not invited to contribute a commentary but would still like to contribute to the book symposium.

Please note that if your commentary gets accepted to go to peer review, the JPE requires a submission fee of $35, or you can become a member of the Society for Philosophy of Emotion (SPE), which includes a one-time JPE submission fee waiver. The JPE is an independently published, open-access journal, and all manuscript submission fees go toward paying for operating costs and providing need-based subventions to facilitate diverse and inclusive participation. 

Society for Philosophy of Emotion

A SPE-APA affiliated group session on Mono no Aware and Gender as Affect in Japanese Aesthetics and American Pragmatism will take place at the 2025 Eastern Divison Meeting of the APA in New York (8-11 January). We encourage those interested in submitting commentaries for the JPE book symposium to consider attending this session. Information about the SPE-APA affiliated group session can be found here and information about the 2025 Eastern Divison Meeting of the APA can be found here. 

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