Charity No
313712
History
The German Enlightenment rational philosopher, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), is viewed as the founder of the movement in 'Critical Philosophy'.
Critique is a complex endeavour which involves, on the one hand, probing the limits of human capacity for knowledge, reflection and action, and on the other hand, seeking to bring to the surface of our thinking its underlying assumptions, values and beliefs which are implicit.
In other words, it is the uncovering of the critical basis of knowledge.
There have been different lines of philosophical descent from Kant, and philosophical 'turns' - many away from some of his fundamental propositions.
The Society for the Furtherance of the Critical
Philosophy (SFCP)
was founded in 1940 on the ideas of Leonard Nelson
(1882-1927), a
Göttingen scholar who took up one line of Kant's philosophy which
had been developed earlier, during the nineteenth century, by
Jakob Friedrich Fries (1773-1843).
This Fries-Nelsonian tradition in German philosophy emphasises empirical and psychological aspects of rational philosophy and is deeply concerned with issues of ethics arising in actual everyday practice.
ETHICS IN ACTION
In his writings, Nelson was concerned mainly with ethics, pedagogy and politics, and in all three fields he tried to put his theories into practice. He was an ethical socialist, he adapted Socrates` method of searching for truth, developing the neo-Socratic method for group work, finally he founded the PPA - Philosophisch-Politische Akademie (Philosophical-Political Academy) to further develop and promote his philosophical ideas. Founded in 1922, PPA was, of course, banned by the Nazis but was re-established in 1949.
Today the Academy organises conferences on political and philosophical subjects, sponsors the publication of books and essays and, last but not least, supports Socratic seminars.
The SFCP - the sister educational charity of the PPA
- was established in 1940. During the second world war the SFCP was set up to support
the refugee experimental
school which came from Germany (where it was founded by Leonard Nelson and his co-worker Minna Specht)
to Britain when Minna took refuge there from the
Nazis.
One key figure, in the SFCP and the PPA, from after the second world war to till his death in 1990, was Paul Branton who did much to promote the idea of practical ethics and a philosophy of everyday life.
In recent years SFCP has sponsored scholarly research at doctoral and post-doctoral levels, as well as developing Socratic Dialogue group work.
Interest is now growing in the Socratic Dialogue and we are training more UK based facilitators. Socratic seminars can be arranged for half days, full days and weekends. In the past those participating have included school students in a secondary school, teachers of mathematics, education managers and other groups with very mixed backgrounds.
Why not read for yourself "The Proceedings of the Friesian School, Fourth Series"? It is available at website http://www.friesian.com/ set up and managed by Kelley L Ross at The Department of Philosophy, Los Angeles Valley College.