Philosophy is primarily concerned with the constraints, conduct and quality of human conversation. That is why, for Contralytic’s third journal issue, we have asked our contributors to explore this concern through the theme of discourse.

Whilst discourse is an on-going cultural activity, it possesses a certain indexicality; when we had initially decided on this theme, the world was in a comparatively more stable place. It suffices to say: a lot has changed. And yet, our contributors’ insights remain just as relevant to these on-going concerns.

Our poetry contributors begin by drawing on the personal dimensions of discourse, and the ways in which dialogue shapes us and our relationships with one another. Our visual artists depict the discourses of diasporic daydreams, the colonial legacies of cartography and museology, the transmission of knowledge via testimony, and questions of transhumanism; each as striking as the other in their use of material and conceptual clarity.

Our flash philosophy contributors have sought to elucidate the kinds of epistemic value one can reasonably expect to gain from fiction, mythology, and ChatGPT.And finally, our interviewees lend us insight into the past, present and future of philosophical discourse itself.

We hope this issue leaves the reader with a certain optimism regarding the potentiality of philosophy as something of a meta-discourse, helping us to see more clearly how the many domains of human conversation hang together, in the broadest possible sense.