Welcome to The Philosophical Society's Web Site

The Philosophical Society, formed in 1972, is a community of enthusiastic amateur philosophers. It currently has 335 members worldwide, a number of them from outside the UK. Although the membership includes academics, professionals, and students from various disciplines, the common bond is likely to be participation in philosophy courses and interest in philosophy.

The Society is not an academic research organisation; its purpose is to advise and encourage anyone who has an interest in philosophy. Thanks to the supportive arrangement with the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE), a discount is offered to our members attending weekend and/or day classes in philosophy organised by OUDCE.

In order to reinforce excellence in scholarship, we hold student essay competitions at the end of every term (see Talbot Award in the sidebar), and one open essay competition per year (see Chadwick Award), with monetary awards given by The Philosophical Society. As a thank you to OUDCE for our supportive arrangement, The Philosophical Society gives OUDCE Philosophy tutors free membership in the Society.

To facilitate debate and discussion, there is a 10% fee discount for members at selected OUDCE weekend philosophy courses, as well as several member-run forums (see Friday Group, Regional Groups, Discussion Forum, Members' Weekend, and Away Day), and once a year, we publish for members-only a journal of members' essays, book reviews, and poems, called The Annual Review. A Society membership and accompanying password are required to view the Archives section, which holds records of past events.

The running of the Society is in the hands of a committee (elected by members at an online Annual General Meeting) which determines policy.

For a personal memoir of how the Society began, written by our founder, see our Our History page.

Our Activities page gives a full description of what we do and how we do it. Below is our at-a-glance information update.

Activity Updates

Last updated: 06 July 2025.

• Marianne Talbot prizes
  The Hilary 2024 prizes have been announced. Please see the Talbot Prize page for details.
• Members' Weekend 2024:
  The event's Archive page is now available. It includes links to video recordings of talks, available only to Philsoc members.