The Philosophical Society-Oxford University Dept For Continuing Education

We are a community of professional and amateur philosophers.
Our purpose is to teach, discuss, advise and encourage those with an interest in philosophy.

The Philosophical Society is a community of enthusiastic amateur philosophers. Although it includes amongst its members academics and professionals from various fields of activity, as well as people who do hold academic qualifications in philosophy, the Society is not an academic research organisation. Its purpose is to advise and encourage anyone who has an interest in philosophy, and to help students who attend classes in philosophy organised by OUDCE (Oxford University Department for Continuing Education).

The Society was founded in 1973 by Dr Tony Chadwick, Staff Tutor in Philosophy at the Oxford University Department for External Studies, the predecessor of OUDCE. It has over 280 members, a number of them from outside the UK, and is based at Rewley House, Oxford. The running of the Society is in the hands of a committee (elected annually by members at a General Meeting) which determines policy and advises the President. The current President is Marianne Talbot who has been Director of Studies in Philosophy at OUDCE since 2001. (Check out Marianne's two podcasts, which are breaking records globally with iTunesU: "A Romp Through the History of Philosophy", and "The Nature of Arguments". )