CALL FOR PAPERS

Crisis and Ecology: On Ian Angus’s Phenomenological Marxism

Existential Phenomenological Theory and Culture
Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (May 27 – June 2, 2023)
“Reckonings and Re-Imaginings”
York University, Toronto

Rogue Collective (Flickr Creative Commons)

Ian H. Angus’s Groundwork of Phenomenological Marxism is a major work exploring the convergences between Husserl’s Crisis of the European Sciences and Marx’s Capital I. While many have recognized overlaps between Marx’s early writings and phenomenology, Angus explores the correspondence between Husserl’s late discussion of Galilean science (mathematization of nature; the crisis) and Marx’s theory of value (surplus value; abstract labour). Beyond revealing these convergences, Angus also reveals that the arguments succumb to parallel critiques. Both arguments, though in different ways, fail to consider the necessity of natural fecundity. While for Husserl the realization of phenomenological significance of bodily lived experience had pointed in the direction of biology as a basis for a rigorous science, for Angus the recognition of the fecundity or excess of nature suggests an ecological phenomenology. The Groundwork offers a profound critical engagement with and opening up of Marx’s theory of labour and Husserl’s understanding of the lifeworld. The work ends with reflections on ecological phenomenology and the possibility of dialogue with what Angus calls place-based Indigeneity.

The object of this panel is to critically engage and develop Angus’s Groundwork with particular attention to his notion of an ecological phenomenology and its potential for opening dialogue with place-based Indigeneity. Papers engaged with any aspect of Angus’s work—technology, labour, capital, lifeworld, modern science, ecology, Indigeneity, etc—that contribute to the theme of crisis and ecology and the general theme of the 2023 Congress, “Reckonings and Re-Imaginings”, will be considered. Ian Angus has agreed to respond to the papers presented.

Possible themes to be explored and developed include, but are not limited to the following:

• Marxism and/or Phenomenology and Ecology
• Phenomenological Marxism
• Abstract Nature and Abstract Labour
• Intercultural Dialogue
• Technology and Capital
• Science and Ecology
• Ecological Horizons
• Ecology and place-based Indigeneity
• Post-Husserlian Phenomenological Marxism(s)
• Critical theory, Phenomenological Marxism, and ecology
• Lifeworld, Labour, Culture
• Ontology of the Lifeworld/Ontology of Labour
• Late Marx/ Early Marx and Ecology

Submission Instructions

Interested authors should submit the following electronically in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format:

1. A copy of your paper, not more than 4000 words, and prepared for anonymous review (identifiable by paper title only), and
2. A separate abstract, not more than 100 words, listing the paper’s title, author’s name, complete mailing address, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address.

While complete papers are preferred, long abstracts (750–1000 words, plus bibliography) will also be considered. Please prepare this for anonymous review, and submit along with a separate cover sheet listing the title, author’s name, address, etc. Please also include a short CV.

Papers and/or Abstracts should be submitted to Gregory Cameron (grcameron@wlu.ca) no later than 15 January 2023. Papers will be blind reviewed and decisions will be made by 1 March. Final, edited versions of papers are to be submitted by 15 April 2023.