Abbreviated title (ISO 4) Philos. Forum Language English | Discipline Philosophy Edited by Douglas Lackey | |
Publisher Wiley-Blackwell (United States) Publication history 1943–1964, 1968–present | ||
The Philosophical Forum is a philosophy journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. It is currently edited by Douglas Lackey.
Contents
History
The Philosophical Forum was founded in 1943 as an annual philosophy journal, published by the Boston University Philosophical Club. The first editor was Sheldon C. Ackley. The first issue contained articles by Edgar S. Brightman, David Easton, Robert Whitaker, and William E. Kerstetter. The journal continued to publish more or less annually until 1964. In its run it contained articles by many philosophers including Paul Arthur Schilpp, Hugo Adam Bedau, Brand Blanshard, Abraham Edel, and Gordon W. Allport.
The Philosophical Forum was reconstituted in 1968 under the editorship of Joseph Agassi. It was published quarterly by Boston University's department of philosophy. The first issue contained articles by Charles Hartshorne, Sylvain Bromberger, and Yehuda Elkana's translation of an article by Ludwig Boltzmann. After two issues, Walter G. Emge took over as editor. He held the position for two issues until Marx Wartofsky took over editorship and reconstituted the Journal. When Wartofsky moved from Boston University to Baruch College The Philosophical Forum moved with him. Marx Wartofsky edited The Philosophical Forum until his death. William James Earle and then Douglas Lackey, both of Baruch College's Philosophy department, edited the Forum after Wartofsky's death.
Content
The Philosophical Forum has been consistently publishing articles by prominent philosophers. The journal's approach to philosophy is rare. Marx Wartofsky had an extremely broad conception of philosophy that included philosophy of science, political philosophy, and aesthetics and many other branches of philosophy, from both sides of the philosophical spectrum, including analytic philosophy and continental philosophy. The Philosophical Forum continues to publish articles from many different philosophical traditions.
The Philosophical Forum often publishes single-topic issues. Notably it has released issues on philosophy and economics, sociobiology, apartheid, African-American philosophical traditions, race and ethnicity, the philosophy of Jerry Katz, translations of philosophical poetry, ethics and architecture, and translations of French philosophy of science.
Recently it published a 66-page book review of Terence Irwin's The Development of Ethics: A historical and critical study written by 82 separate authors.