Professor Regina Rini: What became of the public philosopher?

It’s 100 years since the first Royal Institute of Philosophy Lectures were held in 1925. To mark the centenary, the 2025/6 London Lecture Series focuses on the theme Philosophy in Retrospect and in Prospect. Distinguished philosophers have been invited to reflect on where their area of the discipline has got to over the last hundred years, and/or where it might go – or should go – over the next hundred.

All lectures include a post-lecture "in conversation" session with our Academic Director Edward Harcourt, followed by audience Q&A.

A century ago, philosophers like John Dewey, Bertrand Russell, and Susan Stebbing were intellectual stars, called upon by media and government for wise words on social issues far beyond their academic research. But it has been decades since any philosopher in the English-speaking world had that sort of public stature. What happened? Professor Regina Rini considers several theories, from changes in philosophical interests and media attention to political interference and the overwhelming intellectual prestige of science. Professor Rini will also suggest another possibility: Dewey and company simply succeeded. In making philosophy a thing anyone can aspire to do, last century’s intellectuals ended our cultural need for philosophers as all-purpose public sages.

Professor Regina Rini holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Reasoning at York University in Toronto, where she studies the ethical and epistemological significance of new technology and changing norms. In addition to her academic work, she has written a monthly column for the Times Literary Supplement since 2020 and has published essays in The Guardian, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.

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