British Society for the History of Philosophy

The London Spinoza Circle has been reborn as the UK Spinoza Circle, thanks to the hard work of @asalgadoborge.bsky.social. Please see the website here to sign up and for info on the first event, happening this Friday!

www.spinozacircle.co.uk

📣 Programme & Registration for the 2026 BSHP Conference

We are delighted to share the programme for the Annual Conference 2026, to take place at KCL on 23-25 April: bshp.org.uk/site/assets/...

Mandatory registration 👇
www.tickettailor.com/events/briti...

#philsky

📣 UK Kant Society: Andrew Cooper Essay Prize 2026

The UK Kant Society has announced a newly-named early career essay prize, in honour of the society's late executive committee member and friend, Andrew Cooper. The prize is £500.

Deadline: 30 June 2026

More details 👇
bshp.org.uk/news/uk-kant...

More information about the prize, past winners, and submisssion information for the 2026 competition👇

bshp.org.uk/funding/grad...

Ian MacLean-Evans' winning essay is titled 'Neither Male nor Female: Anti-Essentialism in Poulain de la Barre'

Alvaro Antonio Prado Velasquez's essay is titled 'A Reinterpretation and Internal Critique of Shepherd’s Argument for the Causal Maxim'

Warmest congratulations to Ian MacLean-Evans (York University, Canada) and Alvaro Antonio Prado Velasquez (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), who are the winner and runner up respectively in the BSHP Graduate Essay Prize competition for 2025!
#philsky

Jonathan has also just published a fascinating article in the BJHP @thebshp.bsky.social on what's at stake for global approaches to the history of philosophy, available open access here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

REMINDER - The deadline is coming up on 31 January for:

- The BSHP Postgraduate Fellowship 2026 (bshp.org.uk/funding/bshp...)
- The BSHP Ambassador Scheme (bshp.org.uk/news/bshp-am...)
- The BSHP Social Media Officer (bshp.org.uk/news/bshp-so...)

Applicants should send a completed application form and a cv to Jeremy Dunham at jeremy.w.dunham[at]durham.ac.uk by January 31st.

Applications are especially encouraged from PG students from underrepresented groups, including students with disabilities, students from BAME backgrounds, first generation university students, and women. The scheme is open to international applicants.

The Society expects to make 5 appointments, running from April 2026 to April 2027. At the end of the year, successful candidates will be required to submit a short report (maximum 300 words) outlining their activities and achievements.

In return for their contribution to the work of the Society, Ambassadors will be eligible to receive a number of benefits. See further here: bshp.org.uk/news/bshp-am...

The principal tasks of an Ambassador will be to work with the Officers and Management Committee of the British Society for the History of Philosophy to promote the Society and increase its membership. We shall welcome innovative ideas as to how this can be done.

📣 Call for Applications: BSHP Ambassador Scheme

The BSHP is seeking applications from postgraduate students and early-career researchers working on any area of the history of philosophy who do not yet have permanent posts to serve as BSHP Ambassadors.

Deadline: January 31st

Further details 👇

Details also on our website: bshp.org.uk/news/bshp-so...

Please send a CV and a one page letter (summarising why you would like to take on this role and explaining your relevant background, ideas, and skills) to jeremy.w.dunham[at]durham.ac.uk by January 31st.

The successful candidate will be appointed for 40 hours work during one year and will be paid an honorarium of £1000. The Society will also cover any expenses associated with the job.

While we are open to suggestions about how to achieve these aims, the job will include making videos at the Society’s conferences and lectures, recording interviews with some of its members, and promoting new research in the history of philosophy.

Working with the Society’s officers, the successful candidate will promote our activities online and increase engagement and follower counts.

📣 Call for Applications: BSHP Social Media Officer

The British Society for the History of Philosophy is seeking a Social Media Officer to help improve its online presence by creating and posting content on its website and social media channels

Deadline: January 31st

More details 👇

I received the news today that my abstract for the 2026 @thebshp.bsky.social conference has been accepted! Looking forward to seeing folks there at KCL in April.

YouTube video by British Society for the History of Philosophy Antognazza Lecture 2025: Professor Sandrine Bergès, 'ASTELL, MARRIAGE AND CHATTEL SLAVERY''

Wonderful to have the opportunity to catch up on @sandrineankara.bsky.social lecture for @thebshp.bsky.social on Mary Astell, the language of freedom, & chattel slavery

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRy1...

Blueprint for cosmopolitan philosophy: a post-Eurocentric proposal I defend a cosmopolitan conception of philosophy. I construct a typology of cosmopolitan philosophical skill around a division into seven categories: assimilative, autonomous, comparative, diaspori...

Finally, Jonardon Ganeri offers a pathway beyond Eurocentrism, presenting a blueprint for cosmopolitan philosophy. Ganeri argues for a way of understanding the future of the history of philosophy through valuable philosophical skills and institutions doi.org/10.1080/0960...

Eurocentrism as disease: a pathology between King and Qing Reviving Confucianism with evolutionary and medical conceptual tools in the British Straits Settlements before the Pacific War, the Straits Chinese philosopher, physician, reformer, and revolutiona...

Second, Lee Wilson discusses Straits Chinese philosopher Lim Boon Keng (1869–1957), whose medical Confucianism diagnoses 'pathogens' causing a philosophical Eurocentrism. Lim presents an early systematic attempt to create an Anglo-Chinese hybrid philosophy doi.org/10.1080/0960...

Mixing up the medicine: Garcia de Orta on the problems with Eurocentric philosophy Garcia de Orta (1501–1568) is largely remembered in academic circles as a minor figure in the history of medicine. The son of converts from Judaism to Catholicism, he fled escalating persecution in...

First up: Saloni de Souza highlights an important contribution from Garcia de Orta, a 16th century thinker who fled Portugal for Goa, India, and who critiqued various aspects of a kind of Eurocentrism widespread amongst European natural philosophers at the time doi.org/10.1080/0960...

Eurocentrism & its critics in the History of Philosophy - Special Issue co-edited with @leamundi.bsky.social in the British Journal for the History of Philosophy (@thebshp.bsky.social). 3 new papers just published - more soon! #philsky #philosophy #historyofphilosophy #OA

Schopenhauer’s worst of all possible worlds Few are persuaded by Schopenhauer’s argument that ours is the worst of all possible worlds. In this paper, I propose and defend an alternative reading of Schopenhauer’s argument. According to my re...

📣 New publication! 📣

My article, ‘Schopenhauer’s Worst of All Possible Worlds’, is open access in BJHP 🔓

@philoswarwick.bsky.social @thebshp.bsky.social

'To celebrate the successful BSHP New Texts in the History of Philosophy series published by OUP, all BSHP members now receive a 30% discount on all OUP books. Here's the link to become a member: bshp.org.uk/members/

- Catherine Rowett (University of East Anglia), 'Living like pigs & gobbling like gully-birds: disgust as an ethical response in Plato' (www.youtube.com/watch?v=u44E...)

- Clare Mac Cumhaill (Durham University), "A Midgleyean Metaphysics for Mixed Communities" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGyH...)

Videos of two keynote lectures from the BSHP Annual Conference 2025 are now available on our website!

The speakers are Catherine Rowett (University of East Anglia) and Clare Mac Cumhaill (Durham University). Titles in post below.

bshp.org.uk/events/video...