Higher Institute of Philosophy

Institut supérieur de Philosophie
Other name	ISP
Motto	Sedes Sapientiae (Latin)
Motto in English	Seat of Wisdom, Seat of Knowledge
Type	School of philosophy, research institute
Established	1889 (135 years ago) (1889)
Founder	Cardinal Mercier
Parent institution	University of Louvain
President	Alexandre Guay
Rector	Vincent Blondel
Location	Louvain-la-Neuve , Belgium
Campus	Planned community
Language	French, English
Website	uclouvain.be/isp

The Institut supérieur de Philosophie (ISP) (French for: Higher Institute of Philosophy) is an independent research institute at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. It is a separate entity to the UCLouvain School of Philosophy.

It was founded in Louvain (Leuven) in 1889 and split in 1968, when the French-speaking part moved to Louvain-la-Neuve.

The institute is known for its achievements in phenomenology and holds the archives of Edmund Husserl, Jean Ladrière, Michel Henry and Maurice Blondel.

History

The Institut supérieur de Philosophie was founded by Cardinal Mercier on 8 November 1889 with the intent to be a beacon of Neo-Thomist philosophy, although Philosophy and Theology have been taught at the universities of Leuven since 1425. The institute initially taught programs in French and started courses in Dutch in 1933. After the language split of 1968, the French-speaking Institut supérieur de Philosophie moved to the new city of Louvain-la-Neuve while the Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte is today a faculty of the KU Leuven, in Leuven.

Programs offered

With the UCLouvain's School of Philosophy, the institute offers both taught and research degrees (B.A., M.A., MPhil and PhD) as well as pre-doc and post-doc programs, in French and English.

Departments

• Centre for Philosophy of Science and Society (CEFISES)
• The "PHIGOV" cell of the Centre for Legal Philosophy (CPDR)
• Centre Europè (CEUR)
• Centre for Studies and Research in Contemporary Philosophies (CERPhiCo)
• Centre De Wulf-Mansion (CDWM)
• Centre for Economic and Social Ethics (ETES/Hoover Chair) led by Philippe Van Parijs
• Centre for Phenomenological Studies (CEP)
• Archival fonds of literature, philosophy and the arts (Fonds-Alpha)

Husserl-Archives

The Institute, together with its Dutch-speaking counterpart in Leuven, are well known as the home of the Husserl-Archives, the research center responsible for the publication of the philosophical work of Edmund Husserl.^[1] After the death of the founder of the phenomenological movement, fearing for the destruction of his Nachlass at the hands of the Nazis, Father Herman Van Breda (Franciscan), PhD student at the institute of the Catholic University of Louvain, saved Husserl's manuscripts, library and widow and smuggled them to Leuven via diplomatic channels. The Louvain-la-Neuve archive also contains a complete copy of the documents present in Leuven.

Prizes awarded by the Higher Institute of Philosophy

The Higher Institute of Philosophy awards two prizes:

• The Mercier Prize awarded in odd years for work in ontology, metaphysics or first philosophy.
• The Dopp Prize awarded annually for two consecutive years for a graduate thesis and the third year for a doctoral thesis.

Publications

• The Revue philosophique de Louvain; created in 1894 as the Revue néo-scolastique, it takes its present name in 1946.
• The International Philosophical Bibliography / Répertoire bibliographique de la philosophie, founded in 1934,^[2] published jointly with the Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte between 1981 and 2008, published only by ISP UCLouvain since 2009.^[3]
• Phenomenological Studies, a biannual journal founded in 1985, which was completed in 2008.
• The Hedegerian Bulletin, an annual review founded in 2011.

Renowned emeriti

• André Léonard
• Jean Ladrière
• Joseph Maréchal
• Désiré-Joseph Mercier
• Herman Parret

Guest researchers and lecturers

Internationally renowned professors who have lectured at the institute: