98:2 April 2015
Evaluating Philosophy

Deadline for Submissions: April 30, 2014
Advisory Editor: James Ladyman (University of Bristol) (james.ladyman@bristol.ac.uk)

Funding for philosophy research in United Kingdom universities has since 1986 been allocated to philosophy departments on the basis of the so-called ‘Research Assessment Exercise’ (RAE), soon to be replaced by the so-called ‘Research Excellence Framework’ (REF), which will incorporate a measure of the ‘impact’ of the research carried out within philosophy departments ‘on non-academic ‘users’ and the wider economy and society’. The REF has been the subject of intense debate amid concern that evaluating philosophy in this way will discriminate against profound, esoteric or technical philosophical work and in favour of more accessible and directly applicable work. This special issue of The Monist is devoted to such overall assessment of the performance of philosophy individuals and departments for the purposes of allocating funding. In other words it concerns ‘evaluating philosophy’ as a matter of public policy decision making, rather than value judgments about philosophy per se. The UK example is important because it is perceived to be a pioneer in research excellence measurement, and its systems have been emulated in the past. The aim of this issue is to consider the theoretical and practical merits and demerits of different approaches to the evaluation of philosophy.