American Philosophical Association

{{Short description|Body encompassing professional philosophers in USA}} {{For|the general learned society|American Philosophical Society}} {{distinguish|text=the American Psychiatric Association or the American Psychological Association}} {{Use American English|date=January 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox organization | name = American Philosophical Association | image = | image_size = | image_alt = | caption = | latin_name = | founder = | established = 1900 | logo = American Philosophical Association logo.svg | mission = | focus = | leader_title = President | leader_name = Christia Mercer (Eastern)<br/>Julia Driver (Central)<br/>Penelope Maddy (Pacific) | leader_title2 = First President | leader_name2 = Mary Whiton Calkins | faculty = | adjunct_faculty = | num_staff = | key_people = | budget = | endowment = | debt = | num_members = | subsidiaries = | owner = | former_name = | location = Newark, Delaware | coordinates = | address = | website = {{official URL}} | footnotes = | affiliations = American Council of Learned Societies, National Humanities Alliance }}

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 activity in philosophy, to facilitate the professional work and teaching of philosophers, and to represent philosophy as a discipline. The APA's governance has included Robert Audi, Jaegwon Kim and Ruth Barcan Marcus.

==Activities== The association has three divisions: Pacific, Central, and Eastern. Each division organizes a large annual conference. The biggest of these is the Eastern Division Meeting, which usually attracts around 2,000 philosophers and takes place in a different East Coast city each December. The Eastern Division Meeting is also the United States' largest recruitment event for philosophy jobs, with numerous universities sending teams to interview candidates for academic posts. The two evening receptions are traditionally referred to as 'smokers,' a carry over from the days in which smoking was common. These events serve the dual purpose of informally continuing interviews and catching up with friends from across the country.

== Presidents == The presidency of a division of the American Philosophical Association is considered to be a professional honor.

Recent presidents of the Eastern Division include: {{columns-list|colwidth=20em| * Louise Antony * Sally Haslanger * Linda Martín Alcoff * Paul Guyer * Edward S. Casey * Daniel Dennett * Virginia Held * John Cooper * T. M. Scanlon * Stanley Cavell * Alexander Nehamas * Ernest Sosa * Jerry Fodor * Seyla Benhabib * Kwame Anthony Appiah * Christine Korsgaard * Robert Nozick * Alasdair MacIntyre<ref>{{cite web | url = https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/alasdair-macintyres-adventures-in-philosophy-at-notre-dame/ | title = Alasdair MacIntyre's Adventures in Philosophy at Notre Dame | last = Sayre | first = Kenneth | date = 10 September 2024 | website = Church Life Journal }}</ref> * Lewis White Beck<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3130967 ''Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association'', Vol. 71, No. 5 (May, 1998), " Memorial Minutes: Lewis White Beck 1913-1997 pp. 135-136 Lewis White Beck on JSTOR.org]</ref> }}

Recent presidents of the Central Division include:

{{columns-list|colwidth=20em| * Jennifer Lackey * Russ Shafer-Landau * Julia Driver * Jennifer Nagel * Charles Mills * Valerie Tiberius * Linda Zagzebski * Elizabeth Anderson * Steven Nadler * Margaret Atherton * Peter Railton * Claudia Card * Sally Sedgwick * Peter van Inwagen * James P. Sterba * Ted Cohen * Eleonore Stump * Karl Ameriks * Stephen Darwall * Marcia Baron * Allan Gibbard * Lawrence Sklar * Martha Nussbaum }}

Recent presidents of the Pacific Division include:

{{columns-list|colwidth=20em| * Terence Parsons * John Martin Fischer * Alison Wylie * Calvin Normore * Jeffrie Murphy * Hubert Dreyfus * Richard Wollheim * Paul Churchland }}

==Prizes== The American Philosophical Association awards several prizes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APA Prizes, Lectures, and Fellowships |url=https://www.apaonline.org/page/prizes |website=APA Online}}</ref> A prominent example is the American Philosophical Association Book Prize (formerly known as the Matchette Foundation Book Prize, one of the oldest prizes in philosophy). It is awarded biannually to the best book published in the field over a two-year period by a "younger scholar" (defined as someone age 40 or younger at the time of publication or someone who received his or her Ph.D. 10 or fewer years before the time of publication). Awarded for the first time in 2000, the Book Prize is now awarded in odd years, alternating with the Article Prize awarded in even years. The APA Book Prize has been won by such figures as David Kellogg Lewis,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marks |first=Marilyn |date=16 October 2001 |title=Philosophy professor David Lewis dies |url=https://www.princeton.edu/news/2001/10/16/philosophy-professor-david-lewis-dies |website=princeton.edu}}</ref> Lawrence Sklar,[http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/0203/Sep30_02/fac-sklar.html] Bas van Fraassen, Michael Friedman, Loran Lomasky, Paul Guyer, John Cooper, Ted Sider, and Michael Smith.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Michael Smith - McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus {{!}} About |url=https://msmith.scholar.princeton.edu/about |website=msmith.scholar.princeton.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Book Prize |url=https://www.apaonline.org/page/book |website=APA Online}}</ref> Another of the most distinguished prizes is the Royce Lectures in the philosophy of mind, awarded to a distinguished philosopher every four years. They have been delivered by Robert Stalnaker, Jerry Fodor, Hilary Putnam, Sydney Shoemaker, Saul Kripke, and Elizabeth Anscombe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Royce Lectures |url=https://www.apaonline.org/page/royce |website=APA Online}}</ref> Another such prize is the Rockefeller Prize. The Rockefeller Prize ($1,000) is awarded every two years for the best unpublished article-length work in philosophy by a non-academically affiliated philosopher. The winning work is then published in the ''Journal of Value Inquiry'' at the behest of the winner and the journal.<ref>[http://www.apaonline.org/?rockefeller Rockefeller Prize] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927051209/http://www.apaonline.org/?rockefeller |date=2013-09-27 }}</ref>

==Society for German Idealism and Romanticism== The Society for German Idealism and Romanticism (SGIR) is affiliated with the American Philosophical Association and deals with investigations on German idealists, German romantics and their immediate influencers. Gerad Gentry is the president of SGIR.<ref>{{cite web |title=Official Site of the Society for German Idealism & Romanticism (SGIR) |url=https://www.thesgir.org/ |website=Society for German Idealism & Romanticism |language=de}}</ref> The society publishes the online only, open access journal ''SGIR Review'' which publishes papers in the fields of philosophy and Germanic studies.<ref>{{cite web |title=Review for the Society of German Idealism and Romanticisism |url=https://www.sgirreview.com/ |website=SGIR Review}}</ref>

==Other philosophical societies== While the APA serves as the main learned society for philosophy professors in North America, many other philosophy societies have sprung up to serve as venues for philosophers to specialize.<ref>See Wikipedia :category:philosophical societies</ref>

Next to the APA, the second largest philosophic society is the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, which was created in 1962 by American philosophers who were interested in continental philosophy, some of whom were dissatisfied with the analytic approach of the APA.<ref name="spep">{{cite news |url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/bridging-the-analytic-continental-divide/ |title=Bridging the Analytic–Continental Divide |date=2012-02-19 |access-date=2012-02-26 |newspaper=The New York Times |last=Gutting |first=Gary | author-link = Gary Gutting}}</ref> Since then, however, many members of SPEP have participated extensively in the APA and have also served in leadership positions, including Linda Alcoff and Edward S. Casey.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.apaonline.org/ Official website] *[https://apa-pacific.org/ Official Pacific Division website] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20130507075600/http://www.apa-eastern.org/ Official Eastern Division website] *[http://www.apaonline.org/?presidents Chronological list of the presidents of the divisions] *{{InPho|journal|4576}}

{{Authority control}} * Category:1900 establishments in the United States Category:Organizations established in 1900 Category:Philosophical societies in the United States Category:Organizations based in Delaware Category:Member organizations of the American Council of Learned Societies