 | |
| Discipline | Philosophy |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Edited by | Anthony Morgan |
| Publication details | |
| History | 1923–present |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| Standard abbreviations | |
| ISO 4 | Philosopher |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN | 0967-6074 (print) 2398-1458 (web) |
| OCLC no. | 5455998 |
| Links | |
The Philosopher is a long-running periodical, established in 1923 by the Philosophical Society of England. Originally in print format, following a split in the mid-2010s the publication now exists in two competing formats.
The Philosopher is a long-running periodical [1] that was established in 1923 in order to provide a forum for new ideas across the entire range of philosophical topics, in the clearest and plainest language. Its first issue quoted A.S. Rappoport in A Primer of Philosophy (1904) that:
There is a prevalent notion that philosophy is a pursuit to be followed only by expert thinkers on abstract subjects, that it deals with the pale ghosts of conceptions whose domain is abstract thought, but which have no application to real life. This is a mistake... Man sees the various phenomena of life and nature, forms conceptions and ideas, and then tries to reason and to find out the relation existing between these various facts and phenomena... When man acts in this way we say he philosophises.
The Philosopher was the official publication of the Philosophical Society of England, a charitable organization founded ten years earlier in 1913. The society existed "to promote the study of practical philosophy among the general public", to bring together professional philosophers and non-professionals, to bring philosophical ideas and problems to the public attention, and to encourage wider discussion of both traditional and topical philosophical issues. [2] As part of fulfilling these functions, the society founded The Philosopher as its own journal in addition to running local groups, lectures, workshops, and conferences. The Society, in its original form, ceased to exist in 2014, although its chairman at the time, Michael Bavidge, claimed both its name and assets for his own local group of the society, the 'Newcastle Group'. [2]
A series of arguments internal to the Philosophical Society of England in 2014, lead to the publication being split into two formats; [3] an online-only edition, led by long-term editor Martin Cohen, and an initially print-only but soon print-and-online edition, originally led by PSE chair Michael Bavidge. [4] Both publications claim to be direct continuations of The Philosopher prior to the split. [4] [5]
The purely online edition of The Philosopher describes itself as "a forum for short, original, brilliant and accessible articles". Articles are edited for clarity by the editorial team, with a focus on making content "clear to the interested reader". [3] The online-only edition publishes articles on a wide range of philosophical topics, as well as book reviews. Recent notable contributors to the online edition include Mel Thompson and Urmila Bhoola.
The print and online edition of The Philosopher describes itself as a "forum for cutting-edge philosophical discussions to take place, prioritizing exciting up-and-coming thinkers as much as well-established leading figures." [6] The publication is written for the general non-academic public, with a focus on accessibility.
Topics range from core philosophical problems to discussions of current social and political issues. Recent contributors include Kathleen Stock, [7] Mary Midgley, [4] Timothy Williamson, Jason Stanley, Linda Martín Alcoff, [8] Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (whose article in the 2020 print edition helped bring his work to wide attention), Martin Hägglund, Michael Della Rocca, Steven Nadler, Dan Zahavi, Todd McGowan, Serene Khader, Fay Bound Alberti, Brooke Holmes, Catherine Wilson, Michael Lewis, Frederick Neuhouser and Lea Ypi. [9]
Historically interesting or notable articles that were identified and recovered by Martin Cohen for the online edition include:
The editors-in-chief of the journal have been:
Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He wrote on the history of analytic philosophy, notably as an interpreter of Frege, and made original contributions particularly in the philosophies of mathematics, logic, language and metaphysics.
Ernst Alfred Cassirer was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science.
Nicholas Rescher was a German-born American philosopher, polymath, and author, who was a professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh from 1961. He was chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science and chairman of the philosophy department.
Contemporary philosophy is the present period in the history of Western philosophy beginning at the early 20th century with the increasing professionalization of the discipline and the rise of analytic and continental philosophy.
Gilbert Ryle was a British philosopher, principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase "ghost in the machine." Some of Ryle's ideas in philosophy of mind have been called behaviourist. In his best-known book, The Concept of Mind (1949), he writes that the "general trend of this book will undoubtedly, and harmlessly, be stigmatised as 'behaviourist'." Having studied the philosophers Bernard Bolzano, Franz Brentano, Alexius Meinong, Edmund Husserl, and Martin Heidegger, Ryle suggested that the book instead "could be described as a sustained essay in phenomenology, if you are at home with that label."
The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarly activity in philosophy, to facilitate the professional work and teaching of philosophers, and to represent philosophy as a discipline. The APA's governance has included Robert Audi, Jaegwon Kim and Ruth Barcan Marcus.
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions by being critical and generally systematic and by its reliance on rational argument. It involves logical analysis of language and clarification of the meaning of words and concepts.
Philosophy Now is a bimonthly philosophy magazine sold from news-stands and book stores in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Canada; it is also available on digital devices, and online. It aims to appeal to the wider public, as well as to students and philosophy teachers. It was established in 1991 and was the first general philosophy magazine.
The Philosophical Society of England (PSE) was founded in 1913 by a group of largely amateur 'philosophers' concerned to provide an alternative to the formal university-based discipline. The society has passed through a series of changes in direction, including a period during which it offered distance-learning courses in philosophy. These courses caused a minor academic tussle in the 1950s over the status of its diplomas of associateship, triggered by an ill-advised attempt to award them to all the then UK university Philosophy Professors an honorary fellowship (FPhS).
Boston Review is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form is a "forum", featuring a lead essay and several responses. Boston Review also publishes an imprint of books with MIT Press.
Joseph Agassi was an Israeli academic with contributions in logic, scientific method, and philosophy. He studied under Karl Popper and taught at the London School of Economics.
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy is one of the major English encyclopedias of philosophy.
Café philosophique is a grassroots forum for philosophical discussion, founded by philosopher Marc Sautet in Paris, France, on December 13, 1992.
101 Philosophy Problems (1999) is a philosophy book for a general audiences by Martin Cohen published by Routledge.
The Philosophy Documentation Center (PDC) is a non-profit publisher and resource center that provides access to scholarly materials in applied ethics, classics, philosophy, religious studies, and related disciplines. It publishes academic journals, conference proceedings, anthologies, and online research databases, often in cooperation with scholarly and professional associations. It also provides membership management and electronic publishing services, and hosts electronic journals, series, and other publications from several countries.
Teaching Philosophy is a peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the practical and theoretical discussion of teaching and learning philosophy, that is philosophy education. Established by Arnold Wilson in 1975, it has published more than 2,500 articles and reviews in this field. Notable contributors include Norman Bowie, Myles Brand, Peter Caws, Angela Davis, Daniel Dennett, Alasdair MacIntyre, Rosalind Ladd, Michael Pritchard, Anita Silvers, and Robert C. Solomon. Members of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers and the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization have access as a benefit of membership. This journal has a Level 1 classification from the Publication Forum of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. and a SHERPA/RoMEO "green" self-archiving policy. It is published on behalf of the Teaching Philosophy Association by the Philosophy Documentation Center.
Philosophy Today is an international peer-reviewed journal that reflects the current questions, topics and debates of contemporary philosophy, with a particular focus on continental philosophy.
Mel Thompson is an English writer and philosopher. He was formerly a teacher, editor and A level examiner.
The New York University Department of Philosophy offers B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy, as well as a minor in philosophy and a joint major in language and mind with the NYU Departments of Linguistics and Psychology. It is home to the New York Institute of Philosophy, a research center that supports multi-year projects, public lectures, conferences, and workshops in the field, as well as outreach programs to teach New York City high school students interested in philosophy.
The London Dialectical Society was a British professional association that was formed in 1867, the basis of its constitution was "That truth is of all things the most to be desired, and is best elicited by the conflict of opposing opinions." and that "the Society should afford a field for the philosophical consideration of all questions without reserve, but especially of those comprised in the domain of ethics, metaphysics, and theology". It is best known for its debates on population growth and neo-Malthusianism, Secularism, and its investigation and report in 1871 into the claims of Spiritualism.
