Philosophical Psychology

Our lives are pervaded by commitments: you might be committed to meeting a friend for dinner, exercising four times per week, learning a language, being considerate, sustaining a friendship, or promoting a political cause. Some commitments are relatively trivial and readily set aside. Other commitments are deeper and more resistant to change. When people display especially robust forms of commitment, we sometimes describe them as devoted. Devotion seems to involve a distinctive form of commitment, which might differ from standard forms of commitment in its intensity, resilience, stability, resistance to compromise, epistemic status, or deliberative weight.

But how, exactly, should we understand devotion? This special issue aims to explore this question by bringing together researchers across different disciplines who examine conceptual and empirical issues pertaining to devotion, with a special emphasis on studying the nature of devotion when expressed in secular contexts.

Questions addressed can include but are not limited to:

• How should we understand devotion?
• How does devotion relate to other agential notions such as commitment, choice, promising, resolution, planning, attachment, and grit?
• Does devotion require a particular epistemic stance toward its objects? Is it based on or responsive to reasons?
• Do religious and secular expressions of devotion involve the same form of commitment?
• Is devotion voluntary? Is it judgment-sensitive?
• Which kinds of communities, activities, and relationships provide opportunities for manifesting devotion?
• Are some forms of devotion more stable than others?
• Is devotion connected to love? Is love a form of devotion?
• Might devotion be something that human beings are motivated to seek out? If so, what are the consequences of failing to satisfy this longing for devotion?

Invited contributors include:

• Zoë Johnson King (Harvard University, Dept. of Philosophy)
• David Livingstone Smith (University of New England, Dept. of Philosophy)
• Sarah Paul (NYU Abu Dhabi, Dept. of Philosophy)
• Daryl Van Tongeren (Hope College, Dept. of Psychology)
• Justin White (Brigham Young University, Dept. of Philosophy)
• Monique Wonderly (UC San Diego, Dept. of Philosophy)

• Only original articles will be considered.
• The word limit for submitted paper is 8,000 words.
• The editors will evaluate manuscripts before sending them for external peer review. Only the manuscripts judged as suitable for publication by two independent reviewers will be accepted for publication.
• Please select "Devotion" in the Special Issues drop-down menu when submitting your paper to ScholarOne.
• We warmly encourage submissions by authors who belong to traditionally underrepresented groups in academia.

Instructions for Authors