Is there one or more systems of thought today?
Call for Papers Theme: Is there one or more systems of thought today?
Organizer : SDMI – Mandala - Kalpavriksha
The call for papers concerns research (published or unpublished) on complex systems, a system or systems of thought, without disciplinary restrictions, in both the so-called “hard” sciences and the humanities and social sciences.
Audience: Decision-makers and heads of institutions
Date: 11/13/2025
Location: To be determined
The call for contributions concerns research (published or not) on complex systems, a system or systems of thought(s) without disciplinary restriction, both in so-called “hard” sciences and in human and social sciences.
Statement
The aim of this conference is to bring together researchers working on thought(s) in its most diverse configurations, in order to grasp the political, moral, ethical, material, and epistimological (dis)continuities of these two disciplines.
A thought is always a thought of something, a thought is always an unthought in itself and for itself, a thought and also a system that does not yet think. Can the unique and the multiple structure and deconstruct a system of thought? Currently, and even today, in the imaginary temporality codified by our minds, which do not yet think the unthought of a system within systems, it is legitimate to question the reliability of thought in both the unique and plural sense. A thought is also a system that unfolds within the spirit of a proprietary and utilitarian rationality. Actualized thought can inform us about the different sub-thoughts that spring from this same thought, a tendency within a tendency. It is with this in mind that we are organizing an international conference on the theme, "Is there one or more systems of thought today?" The goal of this meeting is to problematize thought in its real and rational dimensions in order to locate and circumscribe all the parameters of the unthought that can come to scratch into the ground of both objectifying and subjectifying thought, a system where systems of thought are codified not by absolute rationality but by a system whose chaos is omnipresent.
The first reflection that can provide us with a partial answer concerning the nature of the existence or not of a system in systems that can be very postulated in the following manner: how can a system of thought be validated within the human and social institutional framework at the same time? In what dynamics can a system be validated in a situation of generalized conflicts at the level of the majority of continents? Isn't a system the reflection of a systemic reflection that dictates laws of global and globalizing sociability? questioning the current system and systems is to redefine the contours of thought that does not think the unthought.
Let us try to observe the nature of current thought or thoughts well, we live in a world where the variability of endogenous and exogenous invoices allows us to understand well in the différance in the sense of Derridian deconstruction, in other words in clear a thought cannot be virgin and transparent at the same time without irrational ideologization, therefore we settle in the paradox of the paradigm and in the critique of the critique of thought which critiques itself through the concept and concepts of the unthought. A critical study of thought or thoughts is always subject to delimiting the vanishing point of the paradigm of thought in general and the unthought in particular. In their book Critical thinking: Its definition and assessment (1997) Alec Fisher and Michael Scriven give this definition: "Critical thinking is the conscious intellectual process of actively and effectively conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating data collected or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, in order to guide one's beliefs and actions."
From a critical point of view, we are confronted with three universal Kantian critiques: the critique of the purity of reason, the practical critique of judgment in its universal dimension, and finally, in the critique of the critique of practice, which redeploys a logic that goes beyond meaning in the Deleuzian sense. Thus, with this triumvirate, we witness the pragmatic reality that proposes and presupposes a taking charge in a form that formalizes the formalities of logic in its absolute formalism. The questioning of the system of thought, whose thoughts are omnipresent, can appear as interactive relationships, as well as systemic in nature, interdependent relationships. It requires a demarcation line between thought and the unthought, structuring a new paradigm that must not appear new, but as a continuity, yet remaining within the systemicity of the old or new system of thought. This is not a reason to disqualify previous postulates, but rather to demonstrate the complementary value in each system of thought that seeks itself and seeks itself in new theoretical horizons
Regarding the unique thought of modern times, it is commendable to show how this transcendence, which has transcended the entire system of thought, remains as a legacy of the history of thought and thoughts, this problematic that only manifested itself in the 1990s and which has driven a new topology of thought that has imposed all forms and anti-intellectual forces. Finally, the current thinking that manifests itself in a workime has taken on an immeasurable scale, it is reflected in the nature of the American vote with regard to Trump and his triumph, so there is a double game in the stakes, the first is philosophical and the second is political which will lead to a real geostrategic paradigm.
Key Themes and Field Research Questions
1. History of Systems Thinking
2. Epistemology of Systems Thinking and the System of Thinking
3. History of Ideas and Interdisciplinarity
4. Systems Thinking
5. History of the School of Thought
6. Systems Thinking Approach
7. Thinking and Cognitive Thinking
8. Systems Thinking and Design
9. Systems and Complexity
Submission Guidelines
This workshop is intended for a variety of audiences (academic, professional, non-profit, and activist) interested in issues related to systems thinking and systems theory.
Proposals should be a maximum of 3,500 characters, including spaces, excluding bibliography.
In addition to their affiliation, authors must indicate their approach (empirical, epistemological, and/or methodological), the topic, and the theme(s) of the call for papers. Proposals should be sent to the following address: contact@sdmi-mandala.org
By the end of August 2025.
Authors will receive a response by the end of August 2025.
Event Format
Hybrid on-site and online event
Dates
Thursday, November 13, 2025
Keywords
System, thought, history of ideas, epistemology, paradigm, norm, space, technology
Contacts
Dr. Bala GANESSANE – contact@sdmi-mandala.org
Dr. Djamel BENKRID djamelbenkrid@yahoo.fr