MCLA EZine

Volume 25 (Gender, Diversity, and Difference), which includes selected papers from last year's International Social Philosophy conference in Portland, was published and mailed to members this summer. 

We had a record number of submissions for volume 25, which is certainly good news in terms of interest.  The flipside is that with so many submissions, which resulted in an acceptance rate of barely 30%, we were unable to accept a significant number of fine papers.  I encourage all who submitted to continue your good work.  Remember that it is not uncommon for strong papers to find a publication outlet only after several attempts. Submissions have also been strong for Volume 26 (The Public and the Private in the 21st Century), which we hope will come out this spring.

Questions or comments regarding the series can be sent to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   I look forward to hearing more outstanding papers at the next conference, and I encourage everyone to consider responding to the Call for Papers I will send out afterwards for volume 26: The Private and The Public In the 21st Century.

 As a way to support NASSP and the publication series, Please consider ordering copies of the series volumes for your institutional libraries.  To order volumes of Social Philosophy Today, contact Pam Swope at 800-444-2419, 434-220-3300, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or go to the Philosophy Documentation Center web page for the series:  http://www.pdcnet.org/publindex.html.

Social Philosophy Book Award

Each year, the North American Society for Social Philosophy honors the best book published in social philosophy during that year with the NASSP Book Prize. The Book Prize Committee invites you to nominate the book or books you think should be given consideration for this award for the year 2009.

The Prize will be awarded to the nominated book published in 2009 that the committee believes makes the most significant contribution to social philosophy. The field is to be construed broadly, to include social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, philosophy of social science, and social ethics. Excluded are anthologies, historical studies, works on ethics that lack a distinctly social component as well as works on a social topic that lacks a substantial philosophical component.

The Prize is presented each year at our annual conference, where the author receives a plaque and participates in a panel presentation concerning the book. The winning book and other nominated books are displayed at the conference and publicized in our newsletter and in our refereed journal, The Journal of Social Philosophy. Recent winners include:  

•    Rescuing Justice and Equality by G. A. Cohen (Harvard, 2008)

•    Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity, by Will Kymlicka (Oxford University Press, 2007)

•    The Liberal Conscience: Politics and Principle in a World of Religious Pluralism, by Lucas Swaine (Columbia University Press, 2006)

•    Crimes Against Humanity; a normative account by Larry May (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

The award will be presented at our 2010 annual meeting, to be held in July in Toronto.

Please take a few moments and consider which book or books on social philosophy published in 2009 you thought best – then fill in the details in the nomination form on the NASSP website. The Book Award Committee will need to receive your nominations by December 31, 2009.