The Philosophical Society of England

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Logo of the Philosophical Society of England

Overview

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 (although it no longer does today). 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).

Philosophy Study of general and fundamental questions

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. The term was probably coined by Pythagoras. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation. Classic philosophical questions include: Is it possible to know anything and to prove it? What is most real? Philosophers also pose more practical and concrete questions such as: Is there a best way to live? Is it better to be just or unjust? Do humans have free will?

A fellow is a member of an academy, learned society or group of learned people which works together in pursuing mutual knowledge or practice. There are many different kinds of fellowships which are awarded for different reasons in academia and industry. These often indicate a different level of scholarship.

Contents

In the words of its founding statement, The Philosophical Society of England exists 'to promote the study of practical philosophy among the general public'. It aims 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. To carry out this function, the Society published its own journal, The Philosopher , set up local groups for lectures and discussions and held regular conferences, often free of charge. The journal continues to be published to this day, with recent notable contributors including Mary Midgley, Timothy Williamson, and Jason Stanley. [1]

Mary Midgley British philosopher and ethicist

Mary Beatrice Midgley was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first book, Beast And Man (1978), when she was in her fifties, and went on to write over 15 more, including Animals and Why They Matter (1983), Wickedness (1984), The Ethical Primate (1994), Evolution as a Religion (1985), and Science as Salvation (1992). She was awarded honorary doctorates by Durham and Newcastle universities. Her autobiography, The Owl of Minerva, was published in 2005.

Timothy Williamson British philosopher

Timothy Williamson is a British philosopher whose main research interests are in philosophical logic, philosophy of language, epistemology and metaphysics. He is the Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford, and fellow of New College, Oxford.

Its most high-profile president has been Professor Brenda Almond, well known for her work in the cause of 'Applied Philosophy' in the United Kingdom, who helped shepherd the Society to its 100th anniversary, celebrated with a special conference in Malmesbury in 2012.

The Society has never aligned itself with any particular school of philosophy, nor is it a cover for any political, ideological, religious or esoteric movement or interests. Membership is open to all interested persons who share the Society's aims.

Under the chairmanship of Newcastle-based philosopher Michael Bavidge, the Philosophical Society of England continues to run events, workshops, and reading groups around the country, and especially in London and Newcastle upon Tyne. It currently collaborates with various other public philosophy bodies, including the Newcastle Philosophy Society, Bigg Books, and The London Philosophy Club. [2] In October 2019, it is co-organizing a mini UK-tour for Yale philosopher Martin Hägglund.

Martin Hägglund is a Swedish philosopher, literary theorist, and scholar of modernist literature. He is Professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities at Yale University. He is also a member of the Harvard Society of Fellows, serving as a Junior Fellow from 2009 to 2012. Hägglund is the author of This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom (2019), Dying for Time: Proust, Woolf, Nabokov (2012), Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (2008), and Kronofobi: Essäer om tid och ändlighet.

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Contemporary philosophy

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.

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.

Hans Reichenbach German–American philosopher

Hans Reichenbach was a leading philosopher of science, educator, and proponent of logical empiricism. He was influential in the areas of science, education, and of logical empiricism. He founded the Gesellschaft für empirische Philosophie in Berlin in 1928, also known as the “Berlin Circle”. Carl Gustav Hempel, Richard von Mises, David Hilbert and Kurt Grelling all became members of the Berlin Circle. He authored The Rise of Scientific Philosophy. In 1930, Reichenbach and Rudolf Carnap became editors of the journal Erkenntnis (Knowledge). He also made lasting contributions to the study of empiricism based on a theory of probability; the logic and the philosophy of mathematics; space, time, and relativity theory; analysis of probabilistic reasoning; and quantum mechanics.

A. C. Grayling English philosopher

Anthony Clifford Grayling, commonly known as A. C. Grayling, is a British philosopher and author. He was born in Northern Rhodesia and spent most of his childhood there and in Malawi. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, an independent undergraduate college in London. Until June 2011, he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, where he taught from 1991. He is also a supernumerary fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford.

<i>Philosophy Now</i> magazine

Philosophy Now is a bimonthly philosophy magazine sold from news-stands and book stores in the United States, United Kingdom, 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.

Royal Society for Public Health

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is an independent, multi-disciplinary charity dedicated to the improvement of the public’s health

Women have engaged in philosophy throughout the field's history. While there were women philosophers since ancient times, and a relatively small number were accepted as philosophers during the ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary eras, particularly during the 20th and 21st century, almost no woman philosophers have entered the philosophical Western canon.

Allan Stanley Gotthelf was an American philosopher. He was a scholar of the philosophies of both Aristotle and Ayn Rand.

Café philosophique

Café philosophique is a grassroots forum for philosophical discussion, founded by philosopher Marc Sautet in Paris, France, on December 13, 1992.

The Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP) is the peak body for philosophy in Australasia. The chief purpose of the AAP is to promote philosophy in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Among the means that it follows to achieve this end, the AAP runs an annual conference, publishes two journals, awards various prizes, sponsors postgraduate and undergraduate philosophical activities, maintains affiliations with numerous other organisations that aim to promote philosophy and philosophical activity, and promotes philosophy in schools, cafes, pubs, and everywhere else that philosophy may be found.

Philosophy Documentation Center

The Philosophy Documentation Center 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.

Philosophy For All (PFA) is a London-based association of people interested in philosophy. It was founded in 1998. It aims to bridge the gap between professional and amateur philosophers, by holding talks, lectures and debates. Many of its events are held in pubs; and others in adult education colleges.

Alice Crary American philosopher

Alice Crary is an American philosopher who is University Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Faculty, The New School for Social Research in New York City and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. She was the New School's Philosophy Department Chair 2014-2017 and founding Co-Chair of its Gender and Sexuality Studies program. For the academic year 2017-2018, she was a Member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. In the summer 2018 she was LFUI-Wittgenstein Guest Professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.

Society for Women in Philosophy

The Society for Women in Philosophy was created in 1972 to support and promote women in philosophy. Since that time the Society for Women in Philosophy or "SWIP" has expanded to many branches around the world, including in the US, Canada, Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Flanders, and Germany. SWIP organizations worldwide hold meetings and lectures that aim to support women in philosophy; some, such as SWIPshop, focus exclusively on feminist philosophy, while others, such as SWIP-Analytic, focus on women philosophers working in other areas. One of the founding members of the Society for Women in Philosophy was Alison Jaggar, who was also one of the first people to introduce feminist concerns into philosophy. Each year, one philosopher is named the Distinguished Woman Philosopher of the Year by the Society for Women in Philosophy.

Philosophy Sharing Foundation, or PSF, is a non-profit organisation founded in Malta in 2012. Its mission is to bring together philosophy enthusiasts; to inspire, strengthen and promote philosophical activity in the Maltese Islands; and to contribute towards society through Philosophy. The foundation does not adhere to, or profess, any single creed or ideology. Its official languages are Maltese and English.

The Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry, or AAPP, is an organization of psychiatrists and philosophers who share an interest in the interface of their two fields. It publishes a quarterly journal and holds annual meetings in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

Department of Philosophy, Kings College London

The Department of Philosophy is an academic division in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at King's College London. It is one of the largest and most distinguished centres for the study of philosophy in the United Kingdom.

Jonardon Ganeri, FBA, is a philosopher, specialising in philosophy of mind and in South Asian and Buddhist philosophical traditions. From 2014, he has been Global Network Professor in the College of Arts and Science, New York University, previously having taught at several universities in Britain. Ganeri graduated from Churchill College, Cambridge, with his undergraduate degree in mathematics, before completing a DPhil in philosophy at University and Wolfson Colleges, Oxford. He has published eight monographs, and is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy. He is on the editorial board of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Philosophy East & West, Analysis, and other journals and monograph series. His research interests are in consciousness, self, attention, the epistemology of inquiry, the idea of philosophy as a practice and its relationship with literature. He works on the history of ideas in early modern South Asia, intellectual affinities between India and Greece, and Buddhist philosophy of mind, teaches courses in the philosophy of mind, the nature of subjectivity, Buddhist philosophy, the history of Indian philosophical traditions, and supervises graduate students on South Asian philosophical texts in a cross-cultural context. He is a prominent advocate for an expanded role for cross-cultural methodologies in philosophical research, and for enhanced cultural diversity in the philosophical curriculum.

References

  1. "HISTORY | The Philosopher | Public Philosophy Journal | United Kingdom". Thephilosopher1923. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
  2. "Events". PhilSocEng. Retrieved 2019-08-14.