International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies

Identity area

Type of entity

Corporate body

Authorized form of name

International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies

Parallel form(s) of name

  • Conseil international de la philosophie et des sciences humaines

Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

Other form(s) of name

Identifiers for corporate bodies

Description area

Dates of existence

1948-

History

In September 1947 Julian Huxley, the first Director-General of UNESCO, asked a group of experts from different countries and from different fields of knowledge to investigate how UNESCO could comply with the duties laid down by its constitution in the domain of humanistic studies.

The preparatory committee of a common organism for humanistic studies met in 1948. Its task was to define the relationship of the organism-to-be with UNESCO, and its aims were to keep ICPHS's autonomy, to concentrate on tasks of international interest and insure that its character remained strictly scientific. The composition of the Council was to guarantee its Non-Governmental (NGO) nature.

The first general assembly of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies met in January 1949. A supporting organ for a multi-disciplinary and international vocation, ICPHS was conceived as the intermediary between UNESCO on one hand, and learned societies and national academies on the other. Its aim was to extend UNESCO's action in the domain of humanistic studies.

Among its initial activities, in 1949, a first analysis of national-socialism was prefaced by ICPHS's first president, Jaques Rueff. This collective study had been prescribed in 1948 by the UNESCO General Conference, but had met with reticences about its publication.

Its status of non-gouvernemental organisation in UNESCO granted the advantage of freeing it from sometimes insurmontable political matters. Hence scientists from countries that were not represented at UNESCO could make themselves heard and be kept informed of worldwide works thanks to ICPHS.

Places

The ICPHS is located in Paris at UNESCO Headquarters

Legal status

Non-governmental organisation within UNESCO which federates hundreds of different learned societies in the field of philosophy, human sciences and related subjects

Functions, occupations and activities

The ICPHS coordinates the international works and researches carried out by a huge constellation of centres and networks of scholars. It favours the exchange of knowledge among faraway scholars and fosters the international circulation of scholars, in order to improve the communication among specialists from different disicplines, enforce a better knowledge of cultures and of the different social, individual and collective behaviours and bring to the fore the richness of each culture and their fruitful diversity.

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Internal structures/genealogy

General context

At the time of ICPHS' foundation many European intellectuals and researchers felt the need to come out of the isolation to which they had been driven because of the war, and that certain ideological barriers were again creating. They hoped to leave the narrow sphere in which they had been confined, mainly in the former occupied countries. They wanted to fight against massive specialisation and to create a permanent link between the organisations called to join the future Council, favouring their grouping by affinities. Moreover, it was felt that only an international structure with dimensions as large as possible could allow the renewal of the researchers' circulation, their coming together, their possibility of exchanging ideas.

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Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Created by Julia Pohle, August 2009

Language(s)

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Sources

<a href="http://www.unesco.org/cipsh/">Homepage of the ICPHS</a>

Maintenance notes

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