Call for Papers: Intelligence in historical perspective. Concepts of human cognition, imagination, and wisdom in historical and intercultural comparison
-
04. Februar 2026
-
Call for papers
Intelligence in historical perspective
Concepts of human cognition, imagination, and wisdom in historical and intercultural comparison
Interdisciplinary conference at the Department of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN)
Nuremberg, November 19–21, 2026
Submission Deadline: April 1, 2026
From a historical and cross-cultural perspective, the conference asks how human cognition and judgment have been understood, described, and evaluated in different eras and cultures—and what these historical concepts can contribute to today's debates on intelligence. The conference puts forward the thesis for discussion that what can be described as intelligence is not something that is given, but something that differs and develops historically and culturally. A particular focus is on the alterity of pre-modern and non-European concepts that challenge common modern models of intelligence or contribute to their historicization.
The conference is aimed at scholars from the fields of pre-modern philology, literary and cultural studies, the history of philosophy, science, and religion, and related areas. Contributions from scholars in the early stages of their careers are welcome.
For the plenary lectures, we are looking for contributions that raise central questions about the understanding of human intelligence from a historical or cross-cultural perspective and stimulate interdisciplinary discussion. The plenary lectures are scheduled to last 30 minutes with 15 minutes for discussion.
For the afternoon workshops, we particularly invite early-career scholars (doctoral candidates and postdocs) to present their ongoing work or conceptual considerations in short presentations of 15–20 minutes. We welcome philological or cultural-historical text analysis or comparative contributions that focus on historical concepts of cognition and mental faculties.
Abstracts (approx. 300 words) should outline the research question, context, and approach. In addition to purely historical contributions, we also welcome submissions that open up a dialogue between historical perspectives and current debates on human and artificial intelligence.
Please send abstracts with a short CV by April 1, 2026, to gyburg.uhlmann@utn.de.
Organisation
Prof. Dr. Gyburg Uhlmann
Founding Chair
Department of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and Full Professor of Classics with Special Focus on Greek Studies
University of Technology Nuremberg
Technische Universität Nürnberg
Phone +49 911 9274 – 0
https://www.utn.de
The complete Call for Papers can be found here as a PDF-Download.
Die Kommentarfunktion ist für diesen Artikel deaktiviert.
0 Kommentare