About the BSHP

The British Society for the History of Philosophy (BSHP), launched in 1984, is a registered charity, which exists to promote and foster all aspects of the study and teaching of the history of philosophy. The constitution of the society is available to download here. The aims of the society include:

• the provision of a forum for communicating research.
• collating information, disseminating news and exchanging ideas through a programme of conferences and meetings, an electronic newsletter, and a quarterly journal.
• cooperation with historians of science, politics, theology, law, literature and other kindred studies, and with historians of philosophy from overseas, on matters of common interest.
• the reappraisal of all aspects of the ‘received tradition’, exploring new approaches to the subject and new or neglected aspects of it.
• the raising of historiographical questions, including questions about the history of the teaching of philosophy and about the teaching of its history.
• the study of the relation of philosophy to its past, exploring the insights to be derived from both analytic and historical approaches, and raising the awareness of continuing developments in the history of philosophy among philosophers and historians and more generally among students of the humanities and sciences.

Confucius presenting the young Gautama Buddha to Laozi