To: Vienna Philosophical Bureau
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** May 1995 circular to moderators **
** of the MONIST Interactive Issue **
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Dunabogdany, May 26, 1995 -- 13:17
Dear Colleagues:
Negotiations as to the topics (exchanges, "papers") that are to make up the MONIST Interactive Issue are now completed. The time has thus come for the moderators 1) to start thinking about the target paper they are going to write, and 2) to organize the d iscussion group (the group of "co-authors") which will then proceed to exchange ideas on the basis of the target paper, and on the basis of responses to the same. So let me sum up the present state of affairs, and make some suggestions as to how we should now go on.
(i) RECAPITULATING THE INITIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
The philosophy journal THE MONIST will publish an "Interactive Issue" in 1997. Publication schedule, and a first statement of what we would like to achieve:
Monist Interactive Issue The Monist. Volume 80, Number 3, July 1997: Deadline for Submissions: July 1996 Advisory Editors: Stevan Harnad (Southampton) and J. C. Nyiri (Budapest)
Philosophy, like other intellectual disciplines, has been both constituted and constrained by the media available for the production and exchange of ideas. It is the inventions of writing and print which have made scholarly inquiry possible. And as for ph ilosophy, some of its seemingly perennial problems in fact arose as a consequence of the fact that living (spoken) language had to be transformed into language fixed on paper. Writing created the isolated thinker, while also allowing the time to think and to organize thoughts into lapidary form; but it could not be interactive in the way that real-time conversation was, and certainly not among multiple interlocutors. Electronic networks now offer new conceptual challenges, a new framework for philosophy, perhaps even a new synthesis. This issue of The Monist will itself serve as an experiment in new interactive methods of philosophical composition.
(ii) HOW THE DISCUSSION/PUBLICATION PROCESS WILL RUN ITS COURSE: The issue would be made up by 8 or so "papers", each destined to be about 7500 words long. Each paper would consist of interactive commentary (launched by a suitable target or series of targ ets). The "raw" discussion would be electronic, moderated (i.e., filtered through one moderator, but not edited by him) and archived. When the interaction had run its course, it would be edited down, revised as necessary, to form a coherent chunk of about 7500 words, which would appear in paper, with a reference to the archive of the original "raw" discussion.
(iii) A SITE HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED, where the records of our exchange will be archived. This is the MONist nETwork site. The URL for MONET is as follows:
gopher://wings.buffalo.edu.:70/11/academic/department/philosophy/
You can also begin by simply sending copies of your messages to David R. Koepsell, at koepsell@acsu.buffalo.edu, marked "For Monet". I myself would be grateful to receive copies directly e- mailed to me.
(iv) PUBLICATION PRINCIPLES: Generally the MONIST has the following rules: Each issue consists of four or so "solicited" - that is, invited - papers and four or so "submitted" papers. Solicited papers get published without being refereed; submitted papers will be refereed. Obviously, these rules can not be directly applied to the issue we now begin to work on; but in some way or other they will necessarily have to be observed, due to the limited space a printed journal offers. I think in the present case - in the case of an interactive issue, that is - "submitted" exchanges will be circulated, and get archived, anyway; and a significant number of them will be published on a floppy disk accompanying the printed journal; but only the best four or so of them would get into print.
(v) THE FOLLOWING EXCHANGES (ultimately "papers") ARE PLANNED for the MONIST interactive issue (rough topic titles/descriptions):
1. "Wittgenstein's Influence on Cognitive Science: Positive or Negative?" - moderated by Stevan Harnad (solicited)
2. "What Is Computation?" - moderated by Pat Hayes (solicited)
3. "Tradition, Democracy, Gender, and the Ideology of Networking" - moderated by Herbert Hrachovec (solicited)
4. "Philosophy and Electronic Scholarly Publishing" - moderated by Claus Huitfeldt (solicited)
5. "The Concept of Knowledge in the Context of Electronic Networking" - moderated by Christoph Nyiri (solicited)
6. "The Conception of Truth as Objectivity, and Its Implications for On-line Communication Practices" - moderated by Joseph Ransdell (submitted)
7. "Wittgenstein and Aesthetics" - moderated by Kjell S. Johannessen (submitted)
8. "Ontology of the Net" - moderated by Richard Cochrane (submitted)
9. "Escaping the Propositional Prison: New Kinds of Representation in Electronic Philosophy" - moderated by Paul Humphreys (submitted)
(vi) Since the deadline for submitting the edited material is July 1996, it would seem necessary to begin with the exchanges by October 1995 (and to bring them to a conclusion by May 1996 the latest). In other words, moderators should make available their target papers by October this year. In the meantime they should invite participants to their group (and *perhaps* advertise their project in such a way that outsiders, too, may join the discussions).
(vii) There are a number of colleagues who, in the course of the last few months, communicated messages to me, saying that they would like to take part in the discussions. I assume you have no objection against my sending these colleagues copies of the pr esent circular. Prospective members of the discussion group I am going to moderate will also receive copies.
Please acknowledge receiving this message. And of course I am eager to have your comments & reactions as soon as possible.
Looking forward to a pleasant and fruitful collaboration,
J.C. Nyiri
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