Subject: SSP Charter

From: [email-masked] (Lawrence M. Sanger)
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 18:14:44 -0500

[Here is the new version of the charter.  If you have any questions or
further revisions to suggest, please either send them to me, or, if you
would like discussion of them by others, send them to the mail list (when
it is ready, which should be anytime now).  If there are no other
questions, then I will make one of the questions on the next ballot whether
you are willing to ratify the charter. -- Larry]

                            The Charter of
                The Society for Systematic Philosophy

                       Revised March 22, 1994

I. Preamble.

The history of philosophy is full of disagreement and confusion.  One
reaction by philosophers to this state of things is to doubt whether the
truth about philosophy can ever be known, or whether there is any such
thing as the truth about philosophy.  But there is another reaction: one
may set out to think more carefully and methodically than one's
intellectual forebears.  The members of this organization, the Society for
Systematic Philosophy, believe there may be one system of philosophy that
is the truth about philosophy.  They hold, moreover, that it is the task of
philosophers to employ the most rigorous and circumspect methods in
discovering and formulating this system, should its existence prove
possible.

II. The goal and methods of philosophy.

The members of the SSP are committed to the study of the goal and methods
of philosophy outlined below, in broad form; it is in virtue of such
commitment they are members of the organization.  Moreover, many members
espouse this goal and these methods.

_The goal of philosophy_. The goal of the study of philosophy to produce a
system of philosophy, and not merely a loose collection of perhaps
inconsistent papers on various philosophical subjects.

One might not expect to _finish_ such a project.  Accordingly, such a
project may not be what anyone claims _to have done_; it is, rather, the
ideal at which philosophers ought to aim.  (Some may be of the opinion,
however, that no one philosopher is capable of actually completing this
goal, and that it is sufficient that one works systematically in a number
of interconnected areas of philosophy -- as, for example, in metaphysics,
logic, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language.)

Such a system would, given the nature of the subject, include many
definitions and propositions; and it would have the following features. 
(Note that these are features of a _final_ system of philosophy, not
necessarily of any particular stage along the way to this final system.)
(1) The definitions would be correct (which means, at least, that they are
neither too broad nor too narrow) and the propositions true.  Hence, the
entire system would be consistent. 
(2) The definitions would be arranged so that all important terms (however
this is made out) used in the system would either be said to be primitive,
or would be defined using primitives and/or other antecedently defined
terms.  The propositions would _either_ be said to be axiomatic, i.e., true
and not in need of justification (or, alternatively, to be self-justified);
_or_ to follow from axioms and/or other antecedent propositions (except,
perhaps, those which are justified using some sort of inductive evidence).
(3) All constituent theories in the system would be rigorously defended
against all important objections (however importance is to be made out). 
Moreover, all important competing theories (again, whatever this comes to)
would be rigorously refuted.  By _rigorous_ is meant careful focus on
texts, so that arguments are interpreted correctly, and the presentation of
arguments in a form that makes it perfectly perspicuous that the
conclusions follow from the premises. -- Hence a close study of the texts
in the history of philosophy, and facility in using logic, are both crucial
to the enterprise.
(4) The system would be complete with regard to the subject matter of
philosophy; thus it would include, for example, metaphysics, epistemology,
logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, ethics, political
philosophy, and aesthetics.  (But philosophers may disagree about what is
to constitute a _complete_ philosophy.)
(5) Each theory would be stated once, in its proper place (as described
above); the system would not be redundant.
(6) Beyond these general constraints, the system would receive a clear,
precise, and unambiguous expression, with examples wherever they are
required for these ends. 

_Methods_. Some of the methods required for any philosopher to achieve this
goal, or even to make significant headway toward it, are fairly obvious. 
They include the following.
(1) To think often.
(2) To think carefully and rigorously, so that one's views are as clear and
precise as one can make them, and every step in one's arguments for them is
expressed.  Hence, obviously, never to refer (at least in final drafts) to
anyone else's work as justification for one's claims (except, perhaps, when
referring to empirical studies).
(3) To think critically -- to think very often of objections to one's own
views, so as to be sure that they are correct.
(4) To consider opposing views seriously, to strive doggedly to get the
arguments right, and to converse with others about them.
(5) To write (at least in final drafts) in a way that is clear, precise,
and unambiguous, and moreover, organized.

_Presuppositions_.  The goal and methods stated above are clearly biased in
favor of certain fundamental doctrines in metaphysics, epistemology, and
the philosophy of language.  This bias is meant, however, to be very wide
in scope, and not in favor of any particular variant of those fundamental
doctrines.  Thus, for example, at least a weak _foundationalist_ theory of
justification is an essential part of the goal of philosophy; the relation
between one proposition and the next is specified generally as "following,"
and thus may be a deductive relation, but also may not be. -- Even thus
broadly and weakly stated, foundationalism is very unpopular today, and
needs careful defense.

Another presupposition is the notion that it is possible to define terms in
philosophy. -- This is, at present, an extremely unpopular doctrine in
academic philosophy; thus it should be considered among the central tasks
of (regular) members, in their reflection upon their project, to defend
this notion against the various attacks that have been levelled against it
in the past century.

Finally, an acceptance of part (2) of the "methods" makes one an
intellectual individualist, at least in a weak sense; to espouse this is
perhaps not contrary to what many philosophers say, but it is certainly
contrary to what many do, and ultimately itself will require defense
against various attacks.

III. The purpose of the organization.

Generally, the purpose of the organization is to provide a forum for
philosophers and others who wish to study and/or engage in the practice of
philosophy according to the goal and methods stated above.  This purpose
will be accomplished in a variety of ways.

The SSP will publish (i.e., send to each member) a directory of members,
their addresses (including e-mail addresses, if any) and their current
interests, and other information, every six months, so that (if they wish)
they may send each other papers and correspond, etc.  Some of the
organization's activities, if they could be called activities of the
organization, will occur simply between individual members who see each
others' names in this directory.  (No member will be required to be listed,
however, and could choose to list only what information he or she would
wish others to see.)

The SSP will provide an e-mail discussion list for debate among members and
others interested, on philosophical subjects, particularly subjects (very
broadly) pertaining to the project outlined in "The goal and methods of
philosophy."

The SSP may hold planned meetings among members at various times and
places.  The journal and e-mail discussion list may be used for
announcements of such meetings.

The SSP will publish a journal, _The Journal of the Society for Systematic
Philosophy_, quarterly.  The construction of this journal will be
accomplished by an editor-in-chief with the assistance of an editorial
board (on which, see "The operation of the organization," below).  The
level of competence displayed by articles in the journal will reflect the
abilities of the membership, but generally, articles should be written at
least with the competence of a first-year graduate student in philosophy.

The journal will contain at least four sorts of features.

First, the bulk of the journal will be devoted to articles of sizable
length (10 to 25 double-spaced pages, say), followed by two or three
critical responses by members, each of two to five pages, in turn followed
by a reply by the author to these criticisms.  Further debate, in this
manner, may be conducted in later issues of the journal.  (Critical
responses are to be solicited from particular members by the editorial
board; also, responses will be invited from other members through
announcements, on the e-mail list, of papers to be published.  Those
interested may then request a copy of the paper to be published.)  About
half of these articles are expected to concern the underpinnings of ideas
contained in "The goal and methods of philosophy," whereas the other half
will be original work by members on any philosophical issue, broadly
construed.

Second, since there are so many metaphysical, epistemological, and
semantical presuppositions involved in "The goal and methods of
philosophy," members may submit critical articles concerning attacks upon
these presuppositions contained in seminal and other important works. 
Moreover, reviews of any current works concerning these presuppositions
will be quite welcome.  Finally, historical articles on figures who dealt
with issues similar to these presuppositions (for example, Descartes'
method) may be published.

Third, the editorial board will solicit letters from various, hopefully
prominent, professional philosophers -- who will, again hopefully, be happy
to say exactly what they think is wrong with the project outlined in "The
goal and methods," and to provide useful references.  A few members will
have an opportunity to answer, and the letter-writer will have an
opportunity to reply to them.

Fourth, members may submit papers featuring what progress they have made,
and what methods they have used, in their system-building, together perhaps
with description of their system.

IV. Membership.

A prospective member must identify himself as a philosopher (at any level)
or as someone who views the pursuit of philosophy (as opposed, for example,
to the mere use of it) to be an integral part of his primary studies.  Thus
membership consists mainly, but not only, of students and academics.

A prospective member must identify himself as interested in the study of
the underpinnings of "The goal and methods of philosophy."

New regular members may join simply by sending to the organization (at
present, represented by Lawrence M. Sanger, address below) their names and
addresses together with a brief statement to the effect that they are
interested in the study of the underpinnings of "The goal and methods of
philosophy."  (Any member of the editorial board, together with the
moderator of the e-mail list, may admit new members; information about new
members should be relayed to the head editor, however, who will maintain
the member directory.)

It will be possible for members to participate for free, using the
Internet.  It is expected, however, that many members will wish to receive
copies of the directory and journal through regular mail.  This will
require annual dues from these members, to be decided by and paid to the
editor-in-chief, in compensation for the cost of photocopies and postage
(and any other incidentals such as the purchase of philosophy department
labels from the APA to announce the SSP to various departments).  The dues
should not amount to more than $10 per year.  Non-U.S. members, if there
enough in a particular country (such as the U.K.)

V. The operation of the organization. 

The editor-in-chief will put the SSP directory and the journal together. 
Articles may be submitted by anyone, to the address below.  The
editor-in-chief will then either reject the submission (if it is clearly
unacceptable), or relay articles to the appropriate board members for blind
review.  Members of the editorial board will then be responsible for
overseeing the selection and preparation of particular articles and
features (usually not more than one article per board member per issue). 
Particular board members may be responsible for particular features among
those listed above, although all board members will be expected to be
available to oversee the preparation of the primary sort of article.

New and guest editors may be proposed by any member and approved by the
editorial board.

Members of the editorial board, and the editor-in-chief, will be permitted
to publish articles in the journal, although not more than one major
article in every four issues.  (Critical replies may be submitted by board
members more frequently.)

The SSP directory and journal will be published both electronically (free
of charge) and using paper (for the price of photocopies and postage).

Any member of the editorial board, together with the moderator of the
e-mail list, may admit a new members, field questions about the
organization, and organize activities.  In this regard, there is to be no
official government of the organization.

The editor-in-chief will be responsible for sending out ballots and taking
votes upon changes in the organization charter, if any, and then make the
requisite amendments to the charter.

Lawrence M. Sanger, Editor-in-Chief
2273 N. High St.
Columbus, OH  43201
(614) 299-3550
[email-masked]

----------------
[email-masked]      
My allegiance is to the Truth, not to what I think is the Truth.