The Institute of Philosophy was founded by the University of London in 2005. In June 2005 we held a reception to celebrate the launch of the Institute and one successful year of activity.
The Philosophy Programme
The Institute is the successor to the University's Philosophy Programme. The Philosophy Programme was founded in 1995 by Jonathan Wolff of UCL. In 1998 Tim Crane took over as director, and in 2003-4 Barry Smith of Birkbeck College was Acting Director. Throughout all this time, Shahrar Ali was the assistant to the director.
The Philosophy Programme was not very happily named: it was not a degree programme but a fledgling institute. It was transformed into an institute of the School of Advanced Study as a result of a generous donation by Dr Shamil Chandaria and matching funds from the University of London.
The Programme (and now the Institute) has been the home to the offices of the Aristotelian Society and the Society for Applied Philosophy since 1996, and it hosted the offices of Mind, the UK's leading philosophy journal, from 2000 to 2005.
Over the ten years of its existence, the Programme organised over 100 conferences and lectures in London, all of which were open to the public. A list of Philosophy Programme visiting fellows may be found here.