The British Society for Phenomenology (BSP) is an organization whose purpose is to pursue and exchange philosophical ideas inspired by
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
. It was established in 1967 by
Wolfe Mays
Wolfe Mays (1912 – 21 January 2005) was a British philosopher. He was the founder of British Society for Phenomenology and the editor of Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, its journal.
Mays is known for his efforts for introduci ...
. The society accomplishes its aims through a journal, an annual conference (as well as other events), and a podcast.
''Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology'' (JBSP)
The ''Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology'' was launched in 1970. Edited by Wolfe Mays, the president of the BSP, it began by publishing a volume each year consisting of three issues. Wolfe Mays remained the editor up to his death in 2005. Assistant editor
Ullrich Haase then took on the editorship. During Haase's leadership, the journal went from three issues a year to four. Haase also moved the journal from a private publisher to
Taylor and Francis
Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Ki ...
, allowing the membership and the public to easily access a wealth of material online, going all the way back to 1970 when the JBSP began.
2019 was the 50th anniversary of the journal, and after 14 years as editor, Haase signalled his intention to stand down from his role, while completing his work on the remaining 2019 volume publications as well as some planned special issues for 2020 and beyond.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary, Haase convened a three-day event titled the 'JBSP 50th Anniversary Conference' in Manchester at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. Keynote speakers were the renowned international academics Prof.
Babette Babich
Babette E. Babich (born 14 November 1956, in New York City) is an American philosopher who writes from a continental perspective on aesthetics, philosophy of science and technology in addition to critical and cultural theory.
Career
Including r ...
, Prof.
Robert Bernasconi
Robert L. Bernasconi (born 1950) is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. He is known as a reader of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas, and for his work on the concept of race. He has also written on the ...
, and Dr. Francesca Brencio.
In the wake of Hasse stepping down as editor the society instituted an editorial collective. In February 2019 Darian Meacham was appointed as editor-in-chief of the editorial collective, working towards the 2020 volume. Other members of the collective include Keith Crome (former BSP president), Andrea Rehberg, William Large, Matt Bernard, Michaela Summa, and Haase (thus continuing his association with the journal).
The JBSP is an internationally refereed journal and operates a process of at least two referees blind peer-reviewing. It publishes papers on phenomenology and existential philosophy as well as contributions from other fields of philosophy, the humanities and the human sciences. The journal also publishes book reviews.
The online version of the ''Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology'' is hosted at Taylor & Francis Online.
BSP Events
Annual Conference
Each year the British Society for Phenomenology convenes an annual conference at a different location within the UK. Most recently the society has held its annual conference at
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...
(MMU) (2019 and 2016);
University of Kent
, motto_lang =
, mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...
(2018); and
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieve ...
(2017).
In 2020, the conference went online in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, although it was still co-organised with an academic institution, the
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...
.
The conferences usually have between two and four high-profile keynote speakers who are invited by the conference committee. Recent keynotes have included the renowned international academics and practitioners
Havi Carel, Felix O’Murchadha, Tanja Staehler, Luna Dolezal, Niall Keane, Linda Finlay, Mariana Ortega, Sophie Loidolt, and
Dan Zahavi
Dan Zahavi (born 1967) is a Danish philosopher. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at University of Copenhagen.
Biography
Dan Zahavi was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Israeli father and a Danish mother. He initially studied phenomenolog ...
.
As well as keynote speakers, there is a call for papers for academics and practitioners to apply to present their work. All applications are blind peer-reviewed by the conference committee. Between 2016 and 2019, the conference format was a single track event, in 2020 the online conference had dual parallel sessions.
Workshops and Symposia
The BSP also funds and convenes workshops and symposia. Most recently, these have included 'Intentionality and the Human' at the
Great North Museum
The Great North Museum: Hancock is a museum of natural history and ancient civilisations in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
The museum was established in 1884 and was formerly known as the Hancock Museum. In 2006 it merged with Newcastle Unive ...
(Newcastle upon Tyne, 2016); '
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., July 20, 1933) is an American writer who has written twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his gr ...
and Philosophy' at the
People's History Museum
The People's History Museum (the National Museum of Labour History until 2001) in Manchester, England, is the UK's national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of working people i ...
(for MMU, 2017); and 'Embodied Subjects – Phenomenology, Literature, and the Health Humanities' at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation (for MMU, 2018). Speakers have included Francis Halsal, Patrick O’Connor, and
Raymond Tallis
Raymond C. Tallis (born 10 October 1946) is a philosopher, poet, novelist, cultural critic and a retired medical physician and clinical neuroscientist. Specialising in geriatrics, Tallis served on several UK commissions on medical care of the ...
.
''BSP Podcast''
The BSP Podcast was launched on 10 October 2016. It was created by Matt Barnard, a member of the British Society for Phenomenology's executive committee. The podcast is a free audio streaming service which is organised into seasons, with episodes released each week. It is hosted on the podcast platform, Podbean. It aims to ‘preserve, archive, and share the work of phenomenologists associated with the society’.
The content comes from recordings of papers given at BSP events, such as the annual conference as well as workshops and symposia.
See also
*
World Phenomenology Institute World Phenomenology Institute (WPI) is an academic organization founded in 1976 (originally named the World Institute for Advanced Phenomenological Research and Learning) to promote scholarship in the area of phenomenology. The organization was fo ...
*
Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy The Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) is a philosophical society whose initial purpose was to promote the study of phenomenology and existentialism but has since expanded to a wide array of contemporary philosophical pursui ...
*
Phenomenology (philosophy)
Phenomenology (from Greek φαινόμενον, ''phainómenon'' "that which appears" and λόγος, ''lógos'' "study") is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. As a philosophical movement it was founded i ...
*
Existential phenomenology
Existential phenomenology encompasses a wide range of thinkers who take up the view that philosophy must begin from experience like phenomenology, but argues for the temporality of personal existence as the framework for analysis of the human condi ...
*
Edmund Husserl
, thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations)
, thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view
, thesis1_year = 1883
, thesis2_title ...
*
Edith Stein
Edith Stein (religious name Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce ; also known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or Saint Edith Stein; 12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942) was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a ...
*
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
*
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty. (; 14 March 1908 – 3 May 1961) was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest an ...
*
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
*
Paul Ricoeur
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
*
Emmanuel Levinas
Emmanuel Levinas (; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics to me ...
*
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Philosophical societies in the United Kingdom
1967 establishments in the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 1967
Continental philosophy organizations
Phenomenology