Philosophical Groups and Societies
There are a lot of academic philosophy groups and philosophical organizations. But we don’t know about all of them.
So we thought it would be useful to develop a centralized list of academic philosophy groups, societies, associations, networks, and the like, with links to their websites.
To do that, we’ll need your help.
An initial version of the list is below. Much of it is based on a list (without links) maintained by the American Philosophical Association.
Since we know there are many more organizations than those on that list, we’re asking you to tell us about them.
If you know of an organization, society, group, association, or network in academic philosophy you think should be on this list, please mention it in the comments along with a link to its website, and we will add it to the list in the post. Such organizations may be based anywhere in the world. We only ask that you limit yourself to suggesting groups that are (a) primarily for academic philosophers, (b) have members from more than one institution, (c) are intended to be ongoing (as opposed to, say, ending when a grant ends), and (d) have a website.
The list will be updated with your suggestions periodically. (If it has been a few days since your suggestion and it hasn’t yet been added to the list, please email us.)
Thank you!
Academic Philosophy Groups, Societies, Networks, and Associations
- Alain L. Locke Society
- American Association for the Philosophic Study of Society
- American Association of Mexican Philosophers
- American Association of Philosophy Teachers
- American Catholic Philosophical Association
- American Philosophical Association
- American Society for Aesthetics
- American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
- American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy
- Ancient Philosophy Society
- Aquinas and “The Arabs” International Working Group
- Arendt Circle
- Argentine Society of Philosophical Analysis
- Aristotle Society
- Association for Feminist Epistemologies, Methodologies, Metaphysics and Science Studies
- Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking
- Association for Philosophy and Computing
- Association for Philosophy of Judaism
- Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
- Association for Symbolic Logic
- Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry
- Association for the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice
- Association of Chinese Philosophers in America
- Australasian Association for Logic
- Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science
- Australasian Association of Philosophy
- Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science
- Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy
- Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology
- Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society
- Baltic Association for the History and Philosophy of Science
- Belgian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science
- Bertrand Russell Society
- British Philosophical Association
- British Philosophy of Sport Association
- British Postgraduate Philosophy Association
- British Society for Phenomenology
- British Society for Philosophy of Religion
- British Society for Philosophy of Science
- British Society for the History of Philosophy
- British Society for the Theory of Knowledge
- British Society of Aesthetics
- British Wittgenstein Society
- Camus Society
- Canadian Philosophical Association
- Canadian Society of Christian Philosophers
- Center for Body, Mind, and Culture
- Center for New Narratives in Philosophy
- Center for Philosophy of Time
- Centre for Phenomenology in South Africa
- Centre for Time
- Charles S. Peirce Society
- Chicago Area Medieval Research Group
- Christian Wolff Society for the Philosophy of Enlightenment
- Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy
- Concerned Philosophers for Peace
- Creighton Club: New York Philosophical Association
- Croatian Philosophical Society
- Current Controversies in Analytical Metaphysics
- Deep South Philosophy and Neuroscience Workgroup
- Dutch Research School of Philosophy
- Eastern European Network for Philosophy of Science
- Eidos (Centre for Metaphysics)
- Ereignis Center for Philosophy and the Arts
- Erhard Weigel Society
- European Network for the Philosophy of Logic
- European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions
- European Philosophy of Science Association
- European Society for Early Modern Philosophy
- European Society for Philosophy and Psychology
- European Society for the Philosophy of Mathematics
- European Society of Aesthetics
- Experience and Reason
- Florida Philosophical Association
- Foucault Circle
- Friedrich Nietzsche Society
- Friends of Mary Astell
- Gabriel Marcel Society
- George Santayana Society
- Georgia Philosophical Society
- German Society for Analytic Philosophy
- German Society for Philosophy
- Halcyonic Association for Radical Philosophy
- Hegel Society Croatia
- Hegel Society of America
- Heidegger Circle
- Hellenistic Philosophy Society
- Helmuth Plessner Society
- History of Early Analytic Philosophy Society
- Hume Society
- Husserl Circle
- Idealist Society of North America
- Indiana Philosophical Association
- Indian Philosophy Network
- Inquiry Network
- Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought
- Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism
- Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children
- International Adam Smith Society
- International Association for Aesthetics
- International Association for Environmental Philosophy
- International Association for Presocratic Studies
- International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying
- International Association for the Philosophy of Humor
- International Association for the Philosophy of Sport
- International Association of Computing and Philosophy
- International Association of Japanese Philosophy
- International Berkeley Society
- International Center of Studies on Contemporary Nihilism
- International Ernst Cassirer Society
- International Federation of Philosophical Societies
- International Hobbes Association
- International Institute of Philosophy
- International Merleau-Ponty Circle
- International Network on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information
- International Philosophy of Medicine Roundtable
- International Plato Society
- International Simone de Beauvoir Society
- International Society for African Philosophy and Studies
- International Society for Buddhist Philosophy
- International Society for Chinese Philosophy
- International Society for Comparative Philosophy toward World Philosophy
- International Society for Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Philosophy
- International Society for Environmental Ethics
- International Society for Military Ethics
- International Society for Neoplatonic Studies
- International Society for Research in Fiction and Fictionality
- International Society for Research on Solitude
- International Society for Socratic Studies
- International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science
- International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology
- International Society for the Study of Medieval Philosophy
- International Social Ontology Society
- International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
- Irish Philosophical Society
- Israeli Society for the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science
- Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy
- Italian Society for Logic and the Philosophy of Science
- John Dewey Society
- John Locke Society
- Josiah Royce Society
- Karl Jaspers Society of North America
- Kazimierz Twardowski Philosophical Society of Lviv
- Leibniz Society of North America
- Linguistic Justice Society
- London Aesthetics Forum
- Max Scheler Society of North America
- Medieval Philosophy in the UK
- Mind Association
- Milton K. Munitz Society Inc
- Minorities and Philosophy
- Molinari Society
- National Philosophical Counseling Association
- New Mexico-Texas Philosophical Society
- Nordic Wittgenstein Society
- North American Association for Philosophy and Education
- North American Fichte Society
- North American Kant Society
- North American Neo-Kantian Society
- North American Nietzsche Society
- North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics
- North American Society for Social Philosophy
- North American Spinoza Society
- North American Wittgenstein Society
- Northern New England Philosophical Association
- North Texas Philosophical Association
- Ohio Philosophical Association
- Pacific Association for the Continental Tradition
- Penn Project for Philosophy for the Young
- Performance Philosophy
- Philosophers Association of Nigeria
- Philosophers in Jesuit Education
- Philosophers for Sustainability
- Philosophical Association of Japan
- Philosophical Society of England
- Philosophical Society of Southern Africa
- Philosophy and Psychiatry Seminar
- Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society
- Philosophy in Biology and Medicine
- Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Association
- Philosophy of Mathematics Association
- Philosophy of Memory Organization
- Philosophy of Physics Society
- Philosophy of Religion Group
- Philosophy of Science Association
- Philosophy of the City Research Group
- Philosophy of Time Society
- Philosophy, Politics and Economics Society
- PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization)
- Pluralisms, Relativisms and Contextualisms Global Research Network
- Political Epistemology Network
- Public Philosophy Network
- Radical Philosophy Association
- Ralph Waldo Emerson Society
- Richard Rorty Society
- Royal Institute of Philosophy
- Schopenhauer Society
- Science Fiction and Philosophy Society
- Serbian Society for Phenomenological Psychiatry
- Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
- Society for Analytical Feminism
- Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy
- Society for Ancient Philosophy
- Society for Applied Philosophy
- Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy
- Society for Business Ethics
- Society for Contemporary Jewish Philosophy
- Society for European Philosophy
- Society for Exact Philosophy
- Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture
- Society for German Idealism
- Society for German Idealism and Romanticism
- Society for Indian Philosophy and Religion
- Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
- Society for Mexican-American Philosophy
- Society for Modern Philosophy
- Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
- Society for Philosophy and Disability
- Society for Philosophy and Psychology
- Society for Philosophy and Technology
- Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World
- Society for Philosophy of Emotion
- Society for Philosophy of Religion
- Society for Philosophy of Science
- Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice
- Society for Ricoeur Studies
- Society for Systematic Philosophy
- Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy
- Society for the Advancement of Philosophy (Croatia)
- Society for the History and Epistemology of Life Sciences
- Society for the Metaphysics of Science
- Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience
- Society for the Philosophical Study of Education
- Society for the Philosophic Study of Genocide and the Holocaust
- Society for the Philosophic Study of the Contemporary Visual Arts
- Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love
- Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals
- Society for the Study of Philosophy and the Martial Arts
- Society for the Study of Process Philosophies
- Society for the Study of the History of Analytical Philosophy
- Society for the Study of Women Philosophers
- Society for Women in Philosophy
- Society for Women in Philosophy (Germany)
- Society for Women in Philosophy (Netherlands)
- Society for Women in Philosophy (Turkey)
- Society of Christian Philosophers
- Society of Deontic Logic and Normative Systems
- Society of Philosophers in America
- Søren Kierkegaard Society
- South Carolina Society for Philosophy
- Southern California Epistemology Network
- Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology
- Spinoza Society
- Toronto Philosophy of Religion Work-in-Progress Group
- UK Kant Society
- UK Simone Weil Research Network
- U.S. Midwest Society for Women in Philosophy
- Virginia Philosophical Association
- Western Canadian Philosophical Association
- Wilfrid Sellars Society
- William James Society
- Young Network for Wittgensteinian Philosophy
British Society for Philosophy of Science, Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice, European Philosophy of Science Association, Eastern European Network for Philosophy of Science
https://www.thebsps.org/
https://philosophy-science-practice.org/
https://philsci.eu/
https://eenps.weebly.com/
Florida Philosophical Association
International Social Ontology Society
There is also the newly formed European Society for the Philosophy of Mathematics: https://philmath.eu/
The Australasian Association for Logic: http://aalogic.org.
North American Fichte Society
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
https://www.appe-ethics.org/
https://asbh.org/
Florida Philosophical Association: https://meta.phil.ufl.edu/host/fpa/
North Texas Philosophical Association
https://ntxpa.org/
Gesellschaft für Analytische Philosophie e.V. (GAP), Gesellschaft für Antike Philosophie (GANPH)
I guess because the initial list is based on the APA one, this is light on British societies. Some that immediately come to mind are:
The Aristotelian Society (https://www.aristoteliansociety.org.uk/)
The Mind Association (http://mindassociation.org/)
The Royal Institute of Philosophy (https://royalinstitutephilosophy.org/)
The British Society for the History of Philosophy (https://bshp.org.uk/)
The British Society for Philosophy of Religion (http://www.thebspr.org/)
Society for Philosophy and Psychology
https://www.socphilpsych.org/
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology
https://www.southernsociety.org/
European Society for Philosophy and Psychology
https://www.europeanspp.org/
International Association of Computing & Philosophy is a leading org in technology ethics.
International Society for Military Ethics seems to be mostly philosophers as well as some practitioners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Federation_of_Philosophical_Societies
International Federation of Philosophical Societies
https://www.fisp.org/
Georgia Philosophical Society (GPS)
Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SPP)
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SSPP)
Indian Philosophy Network
https://www.indianphilosophynetwork.org
I should probably say this in a whisper, but some of us have even been know to attend the meetings of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S). Though most of those attending are sociologists or historians of science (or economists or anthropologists), some of us do research in areas that intersect with these fields.
The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, HOPOS https://hopos.org/
Ralph Waldo Emerson Society https://emersonsociety.org/
Kazimierz Twardowski Philosophical Society of Lviv https://twardowski-lviv.org
North American Association for Philosophy & Education https://naape.org
German Spinoza Society = Spinoza-Gesellschaft
European Society for Early Modern Philosophy (ESEMP). The ESEMP also has a very active facebook page.
The Association for Feminist Epistemologies, Methodologies, Metaphysics, and Science Studies (FEMMSS) http://femmss.org/
International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology https://iuhpst.org/
The Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture (EPTC)
https://eptc-tcep.net/
Society for Philosophy of Religion (SPR)
https://www.societyphilosophyreligion.org/home
European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions – https://www.epsse.org/
The Creighton Club (Upstate New York Philosophical Society)
http://creightonclub.blogspot.com/
European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotion, https://www.epsse.org/
International Social Ontology Society: https://isosonline.org/
Christian-Wolff-Society for the Philosophy of the Enlightenment
https://www.christian-wolff-gesellschaft.de/
Wilfrid Sellars Society
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069994808078
Schopenhauer Gesellschaft
http://www.schopenhauer.de
Weigel Gesellschaft
http://www.erhard-weigel-gesellschaft.de
British Society for Phenomenology (BSP) – https://www.britishphenomenology.org.uk/
Black Dagger Society
Do you have a URL? My search is only turning up a fantasy novel.
Young Network for Wittgensteinian Philosophy
https://sites.google.com/view/young-network-wp/home
International Simone de Beauvoir Society
https://beauvoir.weebly.com/
and its journal:
Simone de Beauvoir Studies http://www.brill.com/sdbs
Inquiry Network, https://inquirynetwork.weebly.com/
Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society (PaTHES) – https://pathes.org/
Here is another one: Institut International de Philosophie https://www.i-i-p.org/
Aquinas & “The Arabs” International Working Group: http://richardctaylor.info/aaiwg/
St. Louis – Chicago Area Medieval Research Group: https://phartman.sites.luc.edu/sluchi.html
(This is a philosophical Latin reading group)
Virtual Paleography Group: No website, but info here: https://inmediasphil.wordpress.com/2023/08/08/from-paleography-to-real-books/
(Sister group to SLUCHI, another philosophical Latin reading group, but reads texts in original manuscripts rather than in transcription.)
Society for Contemporary Jewish Philosophy
https://cpjc.mcmaster.ca/
Please list the Society for Philosophy of Emotion: https://www.philosophyofemotion.org/home/about
Sociedad argentina de análisis filosófico, https://sadaf.org.ar/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=339&Itemid=199&lang=en
The Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought
https://www.iarpt.org/
I’m running a small but ambitious research group on “Controversias Actuales en Metafísica Analítica” based in Santiago (Chile). Here’s a link to the webpage with more info: https://giannottiphilosophy.com/grupo-de-lectura-de-controversias-actuales-en-metafisica-analitica/
Society for Women in Philosophy UK,
Society for European Philosophy,
Friedrich Nietzsche Society,
The Hannah Arendt Circle
https://www.thearendtcircle.com
Society for Exact Philosophy: https://meta.phil.ufl.edu/host/sep/
Association for the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice: http://www.philmathpractice.org/
Center for Philosophy of Time (Based in Italy)
https://www.centreforphilosophyoftime.it/
and
Centre for Time (Based in Australia)
https://www.centrefortime.org/
Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society: https://www.alws.at/
British Wittgenstein Society: http://www.britishwittgensteinsociety.herts.ac.uk/
Nordic Wittgenstein Society: http://www.nordicwittgensteinsociety.org/
North American Wittgenstein Society: https://www.facebook.com/wittgensteinsociety/
International Society for African Philosophy and Studies – ISAPS
https://isapss.com/
The Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science https://aahpsss.net.au/
The Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology http://theaspp.org/
The Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy https://ascp.org.au/
British Philosophy of Sport Association <http://philosophyofsport.org.uk/>
International Society for Research on Solitude <https://isrs.usz.edu.pl/>
Ereignis Center for Philosophy and the Arts <https://www.ereignis.no/>
EXRE (Experience & Reason)
https://exre.ch/
The various SWIP-chapters, including:
SWIP-NL (Society for Women* in Philosophy for the Netherlands and Flanders): https://swip-filosofie.nl/
SWIP Germany: https://swip-philosophinnen.org/
SWIP Turkey: https://swip-tr.weebly.com/
Israeli Society for the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science
https://www.ishps.org.il/
The Philosophical Society of Southern Africa (or PSSA): http://philsafrica.org.za/
European Network for the Philosophy of Logic (EuPhilo): https://euphilo.net/
Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy: http://sifaphilosophy.eu/
Philosophy of Memory Organization (PhOMO)
Performance Philosophy
https://www.performancephilosophy.org/
UK Simone Weil Research Network
https://twitter.com/UKWeilNetwork
Website to follow
Philosophers Association of Nigeria – PAN
-British Society of Aesthetics, https://british-aesthetics.org/
-European Society of Aesthetics, https://www.eurosa.org/
-London Aesthetics Forum, https://www.londonaestheticsforum.org/
-Société Internationales des Recherches sur la Fiction et la Fictionnalité / Association for Studies in Fiction and Fictionality (SIRFF/ASIFF), https://fiction.hypotheses.org/evenement-events
UK Kant Society. https://www.ukks.co.uk/
Please add the following:
Centre for Phenomenology in South Africa. This is the link.
Philosophy in Biology and Medicine (PhilInBioMed) https://www.philinbiomed.org/
Belgian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science (BSLPS) – https://www.logic-center.be/bslps/
Société de philosophie des sciences (SPS) – https://www.sps-philoscience.org/
Société d’histoire et d’épistémologie des sciences de la vie (SHESVie) – https://shesvie.hypotheses.org/
Philosophers Association of Nigeria – PAN
Philosophers Association of Nigeria – PAN
https://www.pan-edu.org
Society for European Philosophy
https://societyforeuropeanphilosophy.com/
Halcyonic Association for Radical Philosophy (HARP)
https://harp.tf/
International Network on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information
https://quantuminternationalnet.com/
Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective: https://social-epistemology.com/
International Association for Aesthetics: https://iaaesthetics.org/
Ancient Philosophy Society: https://www.ancientphilosophysociety.org/
International Association for Presocratic Studies: https://www.presocraticstudies.org/
Philosophers for Sustainability : https://www.philosophersforsustainability.com/
Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft: https://www.schopenhauer.de/
Helmuth Plessner Society:
https://helmuth-plessner.de/?lang=en
The International Merleau-Ponty Circle:
https://www.merleauponty.org/
Linguistic Justice Society:
https://hiw.kuleuven.be/ripple/research/linguisticjusticesociety
Toronto Philosophy of Religion Work-in-Progress Group
https://www.torontomu.ca/philosophy/kraay/philosophy-of-religion-work-in-progress/
Canadian Society of Christian Philosophers
https://cscp-scpc.ca/
International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB) https://ishpssb.org/
eidos
https://eidoscentre.org/
Baltic Association for the History and Philosophy of Science
Hegel Society Croatia
https://hegelovo-drustvo.hr/
British Society of Aesthetics https://british-aesthetics.org/
Western Canadian Philosophical Association http://wcpaonline.ca/
NNEPA: Northern New England Philosophical Association:
(Thanks you for doing this!)
Croatian Philosophical Society
The Center for Body, Mind, and Culture: https://www.fau.edu/artsandletters/bodymindculture/
Philosophical Society of England – a longstanding public philosophy organisation.
https://philsoceng.uk/
Society of Deontic Logic and Normative Systems
https://dailynous.com/2023/09/12/philosophical-groups-and-societies/#comment-445619
Husserl Cirlce http://www.husserlcircle.org/
Hegel Society of America
https://www.pdcnet.org/hsa
Udruga za promicanje filozofije (Society for the Advancement of Philosophy, Croatia)
http://upf.hr/en/
Philosophy & Psychiatry Seminar (Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia):
https://sites.google.com/view/philosophy-psychiatry-seminar/begin
Società Italiana di Logica e Filosofia delle Scienze (Italian Society for Logic and the Philosophy of Science)
<http://www.silfs.it/>
There is the Ohio Philosophical Association at http://ohiophilosophy.org/.
The Idealist Society of North America (ISNA) https://idealistsocietyofnorthamerica.com/
The Idealist Society of North America (ISNA) is an international group of academics, scholars, and researchers dedicated to cultivating a space for the study of idealist philosophy broadly construed. ISNA’s mission is to intertwine the wider tradition of idealism from Plato to the present with this tradition’s instantiation in the fields of 18th and 19th-century German Idealism and 19th and 20th-century British and American Idealism. We view these movements as particularly important moments in the idealist tradition but seek to establish the broader continuity of these movements with the idealist tradition as a whole.
British Postgraduate Philosophy Association (BPPA)
https://www.bippa.uk/
Serbian Society for Phenomenological Psychiatry
https://sites.google.com/view/serbian-phenopsychiatry/main
CeNic: International Center of Studies on Contemporary Nihilism
https://nihilismocontemporaneo.com.co/en/home-2/