''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.

History

''Philosophy Now'' was established in May 1991 as a quarterly magazine by Rick Lewis. The first issue included an article on

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actio ...

by then

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

philosopher

Antony Flew Antony Garrard Newton Flew (; 11 February 1923 – 8 April 2010) was a British philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, Flew worked on the philosophy of religion. During the course of his career he taught a ...

, who remained an occasional contributor for many years. The magazine was initially published in Lewis' home town of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

(England). Peter Rickman soon became one of the most regular contributors. In 1997, a group of American philosophers including Raymond Pfeiffer and Charles Echelbarger lobbied the

American Philosophical Association 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 ...

to start a similar magazine in the United States. The then APA executive director Eric Hoffman arranged a meeting in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1997, to which Lewis was invited. At the meeting, it was decided that the American group should join forces with Lewis to further develop ''Philosophy Now''. Since that time, the magazine has been produced jointly by two editorial boards, in the UK and US. The magazine is distributed in the US by the

Philosophy Documentation Center 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 journal ...

. In 2000 ''Philosophy Now'' increased its frequency to appear bimonthly. Lewis is now the Editor in Chief, while Grant Bartley is Editor of the print edition and Bora Dogan edits the digital editions. ''Philosophy Now'' won the Bertrand Russell Society Award for 2016. Among the international collaborations of this magazine, it is possible to mention the collaboration with Praxis Publication, the first Iranian magazine(Edited By AmirAli Maleki), which, by obtaining the right to publish philosophy Now, translated this magazine for Persian readers for the first time.

The magazine contains articles on most areas of philosophy. Most are written by academics, though some are by postgraduate students or by independent writers. Although it aims at a non-specialist audience, ''Philosophy Now'' has frequently attracted articles by well-known thinkers. ''Philosophy Now'' also regularly features book reviews, interviews, fiction, a film column, cartoons, and readers' letters. Its regular columnists include

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 ...

(''Tallis in Wonderland'') and Peter Adamson (''Philosophy Then''). For some years there was a philosophical agony-aunt column called ''Dear Socrates'', allegedly written by a

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...

of the

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

sage. The magazine's contents are discussed in an online discussion forum.

Scoops and controversies

The philosophy Professor

, noted for his arguments in favour of atheism, published a letter in ''Philosophy Nows August/September 2004 issue in which he first indicated that his position regarding God's existence had changed. The news of Flew's change-of-mind was carried in many newspapers worldwide, most of them referencing Flew's ''Philosophy Now'' letter. A ''Philosophy Now'' interview with the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor in 2009 created controversy in Canadian newspapers because of Taylor's dismissive remarks about an atheist poster campaign on buses.

Abstracting and indexing

The magazine is abstracted and indexed in: * ''

British Humanities Index The British Humanities Index is a database published by ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known ...

'' * ''

International Bibliography of Periodical Literature International Bibliography of Periodical Literature (IBZ: ''Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur'') covers the academic journal literature in the humanities, social sciences, and related disciplines. Coverage includes journals f ...

'' (IBZ)

''Philosophy Now'' Festival

In 2011, the magazine organised a philosophy festival for the general public. The venue was

Conway Hall The Conway Hall Ethical Society, formerly the South Place Ethical Society, based in London at Conway Hall, is thought to be the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world and is the only remaining ethical society in the United Kin ...

in central London. Since then the

Philosophy Now Festival The Philosophy Now Festival is a large philosophy festival held every two years in central London. The Festival is hosted and organised by the newsstand magazine ''Philosophy Now'', which aims to take philosophy to the widest possible audience. ...

has become a regular biannual event. The second ''Philosophy Now'' Festival was held in 2013, the third in 2015 and the fourth in January 2018. Each festival was a one-day event involving contributions from a large number of philosophy organisations including

Philosophy For All {{unreferenced, date=November 2012 Philosophy For All (PFA) is a London-based association of people interested in philosophy, founded in 1998 to bridge the gap between professional and amateur philosophers by holding talks, lectures and debates. Man ...

and the

Royal Institute of Philosophy The Royal Institute of Philosophy, founded in 1925, is a charity organisation that offers lectures and conferences on philosophical topics. The Institute is "dedicated to the advancement of philosophy in all its forms, in order to access the wid ...

. The next festival will be held on 18 January 2020.

Against Stupidity Award

Also in 2011, the magazine launched an annual award, the ''Philosophy Now'' Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity. The first winner was the philosopher

Mary Midgley Mary Beatrice Midgley (' Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) 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 b ...

. Each year since, there has been an award ceremony at

, including an acceptance speech. In 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2018 this was part of the ''Philosophy Now'' Festival. In October 2015 ''Philosophy Now'' announced that the 2015 Award would for the first time be given to a children's author,

Cressida Cowell Cressida Cowell FRSL (born 15 April 1966) is a British children's author, popularly known for the book series, ''How to Train Your Dragon (novel series), How to Train Your Dragon'', which has subsequently become an How to Train Your Dragon (fr ...

. The full list of winners is: * 2011:

* 2012:

Ben Goldacre Ben Michael Goldacre (born 20 May 1974) is a British physician, academic and science writer. He is the first Bennett Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine and director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford ...

* 2013:

* 2014:

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

* 2015:

* 2016:

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular, ...

* 2017:

James Randi James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010p. ...

* 2018:

Robert Sapolsky Robert Morris Sapolsky (born April 6, 1957) is an American neuroendocrinology researcher and author. He is a professor of biology, and professor of neurology and neurological sciences and, by courtesy, neurosurgery, at Stanford University. In ad ...

* 2019:

Angela Phillips Angela Phillips is a British journalist and academic, who is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work in journalism spans more than four decades, initially ...

* 2020:

Jon Ronson Jon Ronson (born 10 May 1967) is a British-American journalist, author, and filmmaker whose works include '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'' (2001), ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'' (2004), and ''The Psychopath Test'' (2011). He has been desc ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://philosophynow.org 1991 establishments in England Bi-monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom English-language magazines Magazines established in 1991 Magazines published in London Philosophy magazines Philosophy Documentation Center academic journals Public philosophy