American Philosophical Quarterly

American Philosophical Quarterly
Title	American Philosophical Quarterly
Discipline	Philosophy
Language	English
Editor	[See section below]
Publisher	University of Illinois Press
Country	United States
Frequency	Quarterly
History	1964–present
Issn	0003-0481

American Philosophical Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes original research in analytic philosophy, featuring articles on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and political philosophy. Founded in the 1960s amid debates sparked by figures such as W. V. O. Quine, Willard Van Orman Quine, Rudolf Carnap, Gilbert Ryle, and contemporaries associated with analytic traditions, the journal has aimed to bridge technical argumentation and broad philosophical problems. It appears quarterly and has been a venue for essays that engage with work by philosophically influential figures like Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, John Rawls, and David Lewis.

History

The journal was established in 1964 during a period of expansion in American academic publishing that included contemporaneous outlets such as The Journal of Philosophy, Mind (journal), Philosophical Review, Nous (journal), and Synthese. Its founding editors sought to provide a forum responsive to analytic developments traced through the legacies of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, and the logical empiricists like Moritz Schlick and Otto Neurath. Over the decades it published pieces engaging debates sparked by works such as Rawls's A Theory of Justice, Nagel's Mortal Questions, Hilary Putnam, and Saul Kripke. Institutional affiliations shifted with the editorial offices, connecting the journal to universities including University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Rutgers University, and others known for analytic strength. The journal responded to methodological controversies involving figures like Donald Davidson and Paul Grice, and to interdisciplinary dialogues with scholars influenced by Noam Chomsky and Daniel Dennett.

Editorial board and publication details

The editorial board has traditionally combined senior scholars and active researchers drawn from departments such as Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Pittsburgh. Editors have included philosophers affiliated with institutions like University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and editors who worked alongside advisory members connected to American Philosophical Association divisions. The journal is published by the University of Illinois Press on a quarterly schedule with submissions subject to blind peer review and editorial oversight by an executive editor and associate editors covering fields including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and philosophy of science. Production and distribution have used academic subscription models coordinated with university libraries such as Harvard University Library, Library of Congress, and consortia like JSTOR and major indexing services.

Scope and content

The journal focuses on analytic philosophy and accepts articles, discussions, and occasional review essays addressing subjects tied to figures like Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, G. E. Moore, Willard Van Orman Quine, Donald Davidson, Hilary Putnam, Saul Kripke, David Lewis, John Rawls, and Hilary Putnam. It solicits work on metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, political philosophy, and philosophy of science, including engagements with texts such as Rawls's A Theory of Justice, Kripke's Naming and Necessity, and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. Special issues have sometimes been organized around themes involving the ideas of Thomas Nagel, Hilary Kornblith, P.F. Strawson, and Elizabeth Anscombe, and the journal has published symposiums responding to influential monographs by scholars like Derek Parfit and Peter Singer.

Notable contributors and articles

Over its history the journal has featured articles by leading philosophers including W. V. O. Quine, Donald Davidson, Daniel Dennett, David Lewis, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Hilary Putnam, Thomas Nagel, Philippa Foot, Derek Parfit, Susan Wolf, Judith Jarvis Thomson, Bernard Williams, Willard Van Orman Quine, G. A. Cohen, Charles Taylor, Michael Dummett, Cora Diamond, Timothy Williamson, Christine Korsgaard, T. M. Scanlon, Fred Dretske, Alvin Plantinga, Jaegwon Kim, Roderick Chisholm, Peter Unger, Noam Chomsky, Nancy Cartwright, Martha Nussbaum, John McDowell, Galen Strawson, Ruth Barcan Marcus, David Kaplan, Ernest Sosa, Robert Nozick, Hilary Putnam, Elizabeth Harman, J. L. Austin, R. M. Hare, P. F. Strawson, Lance R. Nelson, and Barry Stroud. Influential articles have addressed identity, causation, normativity, scepticism, the analysis of knowledge, intentionality, and moral responsibility, contributing to conversations also involving texts like Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia and Rawls's Political Liberalism.

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is indexed in major services and bibliographic databases used by libraries and researchers, alongside listings in Philosopher's Index, MLA International Bibliography, Scopus, Web of Science, JSTOR, and library catalogs such as WorldCat. Its articles are discoverable through academic repositories and citation services tied to universities including University of Michigan, University of California, and Oxford University.

Reception and impact

Scholars have regarded the journal as a stalwart venue for analytic work, cited in bibliographies and syllabi alongside The Journal of Philosophy, Mind (journal), Philosophical Review, and Nous (journal). Its influence appears in citation networks connected to landmark debates involving Quine, Kripke, Davidson, and Rawls. The journal’s articles have informed research programs at departments such as Rutgers University, New York University, Princeton University, and University of Pittsburgh, and have been referenced in monographs from presses like Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Harvard University Press.

Awards and prizes associated with the journal

While the journal itself does not administer major external awards, its articles and contributors have been recognized by prizes such as the Buchanan Prize, American Philosophical Association Book Prize, Kluge Prize, Rolf Schock Prize, and fellowships from institutions like the National Endowment for the Humanities, Guggenheim Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation. Individual papers published in the journal have later contributed to award-winning books and honors bestowed by academies including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy.

Category:Philosophy journals