Abstract

From its humble beginnings in 1961, the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy has emerged as the second largest society of philosophers in the West. From a near-impromptu gathering of a couple dozen participants, those who now claim SPEP membership number into the thousands, with one recent meeting having around 750 registered participants. The fact of its size and its diversity provokes several important questions concerning the identity and orientation of SPEP—questions that are as much philosophical as they are practical: Is SPEP a blanket umbrella organization, or does it have a direction and/or sense? What implications do the latter have for its place as a philosophical organization ..