Translator’s note: This is a historical call for submissions from 2021.
Preface
What is philosophy? Let us try an answer: love of wisdom, thinking that never stops—an intellectual undertaking that belongs to everyone.
What is public philosophy? The practice and undertaking of bringing philosophical knowledge and thought to a wider public, returning philosophy to its original friends and family.
So the subject matter of this call is by no means confined to philosophy as an academic discipline in the usual sense. To indicate its scope, we could list the social sciences broadly understood (sociology, political theory, political economy…), psychoanalysis, mysticism and religious studies (not in the sense of superstition), and so on. We call it “public philosophy” simply because that is a relatively familiar and readily understood term.
Wangzhe Linrenbu (网哲邻人部) is an online community freely and voluntarily formed by people interested in philosophy and the social sciences. Since its founding, most of what we have published has been volunteer translation work, including articles and videos. But we want to go further, both because translation itself has certain limits and because we hope, through more and better activities, to encourage more and better work and bring thinkers together. We are therefore testing the waters with this call for public philosophy submissions. Fellow enthusiasts, students, and comrades—please send us your work!
Submission Requirements
- Format: written pieces, audio recordings, and videos are all welcome.
- Length: written pieces must total between 1,000 and 50,000 Chinese characters; audio recordings and videos must be no longer than two hours.
- Presentation: we encourage you to use whatever writing and formatting conventions you consider appropriate for an academic paper, but this is not compulsory. Please use Simplified Chinese as the language of your submission.
- Content: submissions must be original and previously unpublished. For possible subjects, see the preface—but do not feel confined by it!
Submission Period
From today until 23:59 on 8 October 2021.
There’s still a fair amount of time, you know!
Awards
- Consciousness of Agony Award: 1–5 recipients, each receiving RMB 1,000 as payment for their work.
- Lens-Grinding Award: 1–10 recipients, each receiving RMB 100 as payment for their work.
*The prize money comes from members’ donations. The number of recipients is not fixed in advance; there may be only one.
Who Will Judge?
A review council convened by Wangzhe Linrenbu’s Autumn 2021 Editorial Team will vote in two rounds, corresponding to the two awards:
- The first round is for the Lens-Grinding Award: a majority vote in favour earns the award; without a majority, the entry does not receive it.
- The second round is for the Consciousness of Agony Award and considers written works that passed the first round: unanimous approval by the whole council earns the award; otherwise, the award received in the first round is retained.
There is no ultimate guarantee when it comes to judging. Bringing in a few PhDs from prestigious universities to “lend some clout” is ultimately useless too. The Wangzhe Linrenbu Editorial Team will do its best; the rest can only be left to readers and history to put to the test.
Judging Criteria / Suggestions for Contributors
- Write for philosophy enthusiasts rather than specialists: with some effort, they should be able to follow the broad outlines. We must politely decline topics and approaches that are too abstruse or require too much prior knowledge. But we will not insist on “talking plainly” or “making it clearer and simpler still” at any cost. Where academic terms are needed, we not only recommend using them—we require that they be used correctly. Please also follow proper citation conventions.
- Whatever the academic tradition—continental, analytic, classical…—and whether you discuss intellectual history or individual thinkers, or tackle philosophical questions and concepts directly, all we ask is that the work contribute to thinking and the practice of critique.
- Sensitive content that violates laws or regulations will not be accepted. Literary and artistic criticism or cultural studies in the narrow sense—book reviews, film reviews, and the like—will not be accepted. No translations, and no parroting.
How to Submit
- Email: lab_on_roof@163.com. Please include your contact details on the messaging platform QQ.
- QQ group: 1034490414. Upload your written piece to the Wangzhe Linrenbu group’s shared files.
Rights to Submitted Work
Wangzhe Linrenbu has the right to publish original submissions first through its own outlets on Zhihu, Bilibili, WeChat Official Accounts, and similar platforms; all other rights under copyright remain with the authors. With the author’s consent, we will consider adapting the work for video. Submissions will be made public as soon as possible after the event ends.
Because we lack experience, we may revise the rules and explanations after this announcement is published. Please refer to the latest version, and thank you for your understanding!
