Both a signal (the “conceptismo” is an intellectual moment characteristic of the Iberian Peninsula) and highly problematic in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world (where other types of essayistic propositions have often been preferred to strictly philosophical production), the conceptuality from which the journal published by UR 3656 Ameriber takes its title implies a primary relationship with theory. That is to say, by default, to that which falls under an already effective theoretical elaboration; but also, if need be, to a constitutive proposition on the notional level. The sometimes dialectical plurivocality of the word “concept” will obviously constitute its richness here.

The concept, which begins as an abstraction with a totalizing vocation, is in this sense opposed to impressions and affects and is the mode of representation that characterizes the scientific approach. By definition, this representation mobilizes a symbolic system and helps to articulate our understanding of objects and phenomena. But, as we know, in contrast to these substantialist theories of representation, the concept has subsequently appeared -notably in Nietzsche and then Deleuze, who, of course, refer us to Gracián's “conceptism” that we mentioned earlier- as the subjective fact of the creator or artist, who determines what takes precedence, either “arbitrarily” or through an accepted openness to contingency. Contextualists have also presented the concept as primarily determined by its situation of enunciation (or its historicity: where and when is there a concept?), culminating in the “approximation”, deemed salutary by the second Wittgenstein, of “family resemblances” that seek to do away with the rigidity of subsumption and/or the “myth” of totalization.

Conceptuality understood in this way includes: literary theory (elements of narratology, poetics, and rhetoric); semiotic theory (linguistic concepts as well as methodological tools from the visual arts and video games); tools of apprehension specific to the social and political sciences; the psychoanalytic approach; and, of course, philosophical theory.

While Conceφtos would never exclude the use of concepts as the subject of its studies, it is clear that its vocation is to give priority to their application to cultural, social or political objects in the Hispanic and Lusophone world for which these concepts are particularly relevant or topical. This preference will be guided, on the one hand, by the requirement of a minimum degree of specificity of these concepts (that they not be too general: we know the communication vessels between extension and comprehension) and, on the other hand, by vigilance with regard to their possible overexposure in the contemporary scientific field (even if the effects of fashion in the conceptual field can in themselves constitute the object of analysis, as we suggested above when evoking contextualism).

The dossiers that make up the core of each issue will therefore either be articulated around one of these concepts, or occasionally be monographic if the author is himself a theorist (literary critic, linguist, political scientist, sociologist, historian, psychoanalyst, philosopher, etc.). In addition to the articles that make up these dossiers, each issue of the journal will welcome a certain number of varia or “mixed” contributions, whose only common denominator will be their adherence to the editorial line just defined. Some issues (including those with monographic dossiers) may include interviews with leading figures. Two additional sections will be added: on the one hand, reviews of recently published essays or essays that are particularly related to the themes addressed in the issue (dossier or varia), and on the other hand, creations or translations of theoretical texts (extracts, short chapters), it being understood that the journal will be trilingual (French, Spanish and Portuguese), given its production and distribution area, and that dossiers may focus exclusively on one of the European, American or African areas induced by the last two languages.