Comparative Philosophy is a peer-reviewed, open-access/non-profit international journal of philosophy, with emphasis on the constructive engagement of distinct approaches to philosophical issues, problems, themes from various philosophical traditions/styles/orientations of doing philosophy for the sake of their joint contribution to the common philosophical enterprise, and/or on general theory and methodology of comparative philosophy.
Comparative Philosophy is an independent international academic journal. The subtitle of the Journal highlights what would distinguish this journal (more or less) from other ones in the current market of philosophy journals in regard to coverage, orientation, emphasis, and goal. The coverage of Comparative Philosophy is not restricted to, but can include, any particular comparative-engagement pairs of distinct approaches from different traditions or styles/orientations of doing philosophy (e.g., the East-West, South-North, or analytic-‘Continental’, though such labels might be misleading/inaccurate out of context), in view of the common philosophical enterprise and a series of issues and topics of philosophical interest and significance. The emphasis of the Journal, regarding conceptual/explanatory resources and modes of thinking in philosophy, is not exclusive to any ad hoc way of thinking alone (e.g., neither the Greek-style nous alone nor the Chinese-style dao alone) but inclusive and open-minded, generally speaking; but this emphasis is also sensitive to the nature and features of specific philosophical issues/topics and the demand of situations, specifically speaking. On the other hand, the Journal is inclusive but not merely for the sake of being aware of views from other traditions or styles of doing philosophy without critical engagement. The Journal emphasizes critical engagement but not without serious consideration of positive constructive contribution. Rather, the Journal explicitly emphasizes the constructive engagement of distinct approaches in light of critical examination. It is to inquire into how, via reflective criticism (including self-criticism) and argumentation/justification, distinct modes of thinking, methodological approaches, visions, insights, substantial points of view, or conceptual and explanatory resources from different philosophical traditions and/or different styles/orientations of doing philosophy (within one tradition or from different traditions) can learn from each other and jointly contribute to our understanding and treatment of a series of issues, themes or topics of philosophical significance, which can be jointly concerned through appropriate philosophical interpretation and/or from a broader philosophical vantage point. As a result, the Journal would be more inclusive and also more explicitly and emphatically constructive-engagement oriented. The journal Comparative Philosophy would meet a serious need on one important front of philosophical inquiry in a global context.
Comparative Philosophy is an independent international academic journal. The International Editorial Board of the Journal consists of its Advisory Board and its Editorial Committee. Taking the open-access approach, the Journal is not published by a commercial press but by non-profit university institutions through universal accessibility of the Internet without subscription cost. It is published in English on the World Wide Web by the Center for Comparative Philosophy and the University Library at San Jose State University, California, USA.
The contents of Comparative Philosophy are to be intrinsically relevant to the philosophical interest and inquiry of philosophy scholars and students, no matter which specific traditions they study (e.g., Chinese or Indian philosophy) and no matter which style of philosophy they instantiate (e.g., analytic or ‘Continental’ philosophy), given that they work on issues and topics under examination in the Journal. For a philosopher would be intrinsically interested in distinct approaches to the issues and topics under her philosophical (instead of merely historical) examination and in their reflective relation to her current working approach, whether or not she takes some other distinct approach also as her (current) working approach, which may be related to her training/specialty background, personal research interest or the need of the current study.
The target reader-audience of Comparative Philosophy, due to its nature and focus, consists primarily of academic philosophers and philosophy students throughout the world and across the boundaries of various traditions or styles of doing philosophy, both in developed countries or areas with relatively sufficient resources and in developing countries with insufficient resources. It is also intended to make excellent scholarship in comparative philosophy (understood in the foregoing broad, constructive way) available to researchers in other fields and non-academic readers who are interested in philosophical issues and topics. With this extensive readership in mind, and in view that some institutions (especially those in developing countries) cannot afford expensive journal subscriptions, Comparative Philosophy takes the open-access approach through universal accessibility of the Internet without cost. The open-access approach taken by the Journal is thus not merely an economic means to philosophy journal production but also a substantial way of maximizing the impact of philosophical research and enhancing constructively-engaging feedback and dialogue.
Comparative Philosophy is to primarily publish original articles of high-quality (‘articles’ for short below). Submissions of articles to Comparative Philosophy are judged through a blind refereeing process and selected for publication on the basis of their academic quality (rigorous argumentation/explanation, clear presentation, etc.), relevance to constructive engagement, and significance to comparative philosophy. Depending on need, the Journal might include a special column of essays on a specific theme; the essays to be included in the column are reviewed by the special column editor and other peers. An issue of the Journal might contain the “Constructive-Engagement Dialogue” section and/or the “Recent Work” section. The “Constructive-Engagement Dialogue” section includes critical discussions of certain views in the published papers in the Journal and their authors’ responses. The “Recent Work” section include writings on recent work in the constructive-engagement scholarship of comparative philosophy: the writing might be a reflective report of the significant result of a conference, or a “state of the art” survey, or a book review. Contributions to the above two sections will be given editorial and/or peer examination (due to the nature of the writing) in view of relevant academic expectations and of how they are related to the emphasis of the Journal. Submissions are to be made in clear and accessible English (whenever logical notation is not being used) electronically via internet.
Comparative Philosophy is currently planned to be a biannual journal, which is to be published in January/February and July/August of each year, starting its first issue (Volume 1, Number 1) in January 2010. With the journal quality as one priority concern, we plan to start steadily without rush. The Editorial team is free to publish as few articles as are judged to meet a high standard of quality. The Journal is to be published in a typeset format that can be read on-screen or printed by the reader. Besides the ISSN of the Journal, the physical appearance and Universal Resource Locator (URLs) are permanently fixed to allow for reliable citations.
No license or subscription is required for access to Comparative Philosophy. The copyright of an article published by Comparative Philosophy will remain with its author(s). In addition, the Journal does not manage rights and permissions for other uses of the article (such as its translation or reprint) but have them at the discretion of its author(s), provided that full reference is made to Comparative Philosophy as the original (English) medium of publication.
Section Policies
Articles
Open Submissions
Indexed
Peer Reviewed
Recent Work
Open Submissions
Indexed
Peer Reviewed
Special Topic
Open Submissions
Indexed
Peer Reviewed
Special Issue: Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of ISCWP
Open Submissions
Indexed
Peer Reviewed
Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Archiving
This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...
Open Submissions
Peer Reviewed