Murmansk Arctic Starte University (Murmansk) and Nord University (Norway) are hosting  V Kant-Bakhtin International  Science and Practice Seminar “Human Being In A ‘Between’ ” from  15-16 March 2017 in Murmansk, Russia.

The tradition to hold annual Kant and Bakhtin international seminars originally developed in the field of reflections on the borders and those consequences that flow out of the fundamental liminal character of human existence. This area of research got the name ‘borderology’. Man is existent, evolving on the borders, moreover, man is the creator of all possible borders and fearless researcher of the limits. Man is always “between” and always connects these or those extremes. Man combines the biological and social in oneself, he unwraps oneself between bodily cravings and spiritual impulses, his deeds are performed in-between the necessity, imposed by the laws of nature and society, and freedom which is given to him as a priceless gift and damnation.
According to the Russian philosopher Nikolay Berdyaev, “man is intersecting point of two worlds... Inherently man is already disruption in the natural world, he does not fit in it” (“Sense of creativity”).
As such, Kant-Bakhtin seminar itself is “between” – in the intellectual space between cultural worlds and thinking traditions, between vital demands of concrete timepoint and the need to comprehend “eternal issues”. Both the geography of seminar participants and problematics have broadened during the five years. The fifth seminar, maintaining focus on borderology issues, presupposes extension of concrete topics for discussion, among which relations between Man and Nature come to the fore in their ethic, politic and ecosophical aspects, and also the problem of sustainability and social development changeability.
Modern world is extremely changeable. This changeability found its reflection in a big amount of actual philosophic concepts: in the ideas of “runaway world” of A. Giddens, “liquid Modernity” of Z. Bauman, “modernity at large” of A. Appadurai and others. Nevertheless, this liquidity, border dissolution bring new challenges for humanity, and Kant-Bakhtin seminar defines the combination of efforts of philosophers and researchers from different countries in order to comprehend these challenges in attempt to find adequate answers as one of the main goals. In the long run, man is (self)consciousness which only can take place BETWEEN question-challenge and dignified reply.

Main topics for discussion:

• Man on the border: ethical and philosophical implications.
• Sustainability and changes: “liquid Modernity” and its ecosophical, political,economic, demographic,igratory,etc. challenges.
• Characteristics and analysis of sustainable variants of relationship between man and nature in different real-life practices and in cultural pattern.
• The issue of making connections and differentiations between man and nature in the history of ideas.
• Different ideas, concepts and mental impact to the understanding of man and nature relationship.
• The process and procedure of symbolization of different ways of making connections between man and nature in culture and arts.
• Philosophical aspects of ecology.
• Ecology, ethics and economics.

A call for abstracts and for application is now open, with a submission deadline of March 5th 2017.

For more information about the rules for abstract, go to this link