Our Purpose

In Latin, “ex animo” means “from the heart.” The title of this journal reflects an aspect of philosophy that we see as integral to the practice, namely, that philosophy always comes from the heart. The Ancient Greek word φιλοσοφία, from which the word ‘philosophy’ is derived, literally means “the love of wisdom.” Philosophy, then, can principally be seen as being about love and understanding; but, in another, more specific sense, we see philosophy as a learning-to-love, a loving comportment toward that with which we are engaged when philosophizing. This loving comportment should ideally care for and tend to the thing loved, not as a radical acceptance of the thing toward which we lovingly comport ourselves, but as an openness and attentiveness which allows the thing loved itself be as it is in all of its unpredictable strangeness, novelty, and mystery.  

In part, the goal of this journal is to challenge what it means to do philosophy, that is, to redefine philosophy and broaden its scope. Philosophy, we contend, is fundamental to understanding our history, and, most importantly, it can challenge and transform the present, and help us to reimagine the future. It fosters within us an ineffable sense of wonder and compels us to develop compassionate, thoughtful, critical, and curious dispositions that allow us to hold the world and ourselves accountable. It affords us with the means through which we can address epistemic vices such as dogmatism, closed-mindedness, and prejudice. We find that philosophy is not simply an academic discipline or intellectual practice—it is a way of living and being in the world, a way of navigating the variegated topography of existence with an open mind and an open heart. 

At its heart, the journal attempts to embody the ethos of pluralism—a genuinely open disposition in regard to subject and approach. Today, certain schools of thought continue to be excluded from what is accepted as ‘real philosophy,’ dismissed on the grounds that they are ways of thinking which are incongruous with the traditional academic philosophical canon. This is a problem that we seek to remedy. Hence, as a pluralist journal, we validate all schools of thought as equally philosophical and have these views coexist in Ex Animo. In short, this means the journal engages with issues and inquiries across a wide range of philosophical perspectives and academic disciplines.

For these reasons, Ex Animo accepts papers from all philosophical areas and traditions, ranging from aesthetics to ethics, political philosophy to phenomenology, feminist epistemology to the critical philosophy of race, Latin American philosophy to German idealism, Native American philosophies to French existentialism, American pragmatism to East Asian philosophies, etc. Indeed, our goal is to create the broadest understanding of what ‘counts’ as philosophy and to collapse the distinction and opposition between Western philosophy and those philosophies that have been traditionally marginalized. Further, we believe that philosophy should be made more inclusive and not be restricted to purely ‘academic’ philosophy, and, to that end, we accept non-traditional forms of philosophy, such as short stories, poetry, aphorisms, and visual art, that convey or struggle with philosophical themes and problems. 

Though not required, the journal encourages submissions that imaginatively and genuinely bring philosophy to bear on lived experiences. We believe that philosophy has the capacity to meaningfully and profoundly inform all of our lives, and papers that realize this potential are ideal submissions for Ex Animo.