Australasian Journal of Philosophy

Australasian Journal of Philosophy
Former names	The Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy
Abbreviated title (ISO 4)	Australas. J. Philos.
Discipline	Philosophy
Language	English
Edited by	Stephen Hetherington
Publication details
Publisher	Routledge on behalf of the Australasian Association of Philosophy
Publication history	1923–present
Frequency	Quarterly
Indexing
ISSN	0004-8402 (print) 1471-6828 (web)
LCCN	36002661
OCLC no.	02923644
Links
Journal homepage Journal page at publisher's website

The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, first published in 1923,^[1] and known as the Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy from 1923 until 1946, is Australasia's oldest double-blind peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy, and "one of the oldest English-language philosophy journals in the world".^[2]

In 1947, the name of the journal was changed from the Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy to the Australasian Journal of Philosophy in order to avoid any future confusion with the new Australian Journal of Psychology, the first issue of which was released in June 1949.^[3]

It is published by Routledge on behalf of the Australasian Association of Philosophy; and, in 2007, was rated "A" in the European Reference Index in the Humanities. It is abstracted and indexed by, amongst others, the Arts and Humanities Citation Index.^[4]

In addition to Articles and Discussion Notes, the journal publishes Book Reviews and Book Notes as well as occasional commissioned Critical Notices.

Publishing history

Continuously published since its foundation in 1923 — with all members of the Australasian Association of Psychology and Philosophy receiving copies of the journal free of charge as a perquisite of their membership (it was also available to non-members at a cost of three shillings an issue, or ten shillings a year)^[5] — it was published quarterly (in March, June, September and December) from 1923 until 1937, and published three times a year from 1938 to 1978, except for the period from 1943 to 1947, when limited war-time supplies restricted the publication to only two issues a year.

It resumed its quarterly publication in 1979; and, ever since then, has appeared four times a year.

Publication of the Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy commenced in 1923, consequent upon its founding by the professors of philosophy and a couple of professors of psychology from universities in Australia and New Zealand.

As the name of the journal indicates, it was intended at the time to cover two disciplinary fields.
The founders explicitly acknowledged the difficulties they faced in emulating the specialised journals in existence in the U.K. and the U.S. because they considered their readership likely to be restricted by the size of Australasian universities and the limited range of their disciplinary offerings.
Accordingly, there was, for example, no thought of competing with the four leading philosophy journals that had been established late in the nineteenth century and around the turn of the twentieth century, viz., Mind and Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society in the U.K., and The Journal of Philosophy and The Philosophical Review in the U.S. …

Despite the thought that the founders clearly gave to how they envisaged the journal’s character, they were fearful that it might fall between two stools in targeting academics and their students from two distinct disciplines as well as the wider community.
Fortunately, their fears were not realised. The journal has not only survived but has thrived, and now occupies a distinguished place among the very professional philosophical journals its founders believed it could not hope to emulate. (Young, 2010)

The Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy, of which we have received the first number, encourages us to hope for a very interesting and useful publication. It is small enough to go into the pocket and the articles are short enough to be clear and to the point. (The Journal of Philosophy, 5 July 1923)^[6]

Originally published by the Australasian Association of Psychology and Philosophy itself, and, later, the Australasian Association of Philosophy, Oxford University Press became its publisher in 1998, and continued to be such until 2004; and, since 2005, it has been published by Taylor and Francis under its Routledge imprint.

Editors-in-chief

The following is a list of those who have served as the journal’s editor-in-chief, and their associated institutions:

• 1923 – 1926 (inaugural editor): Francis Anderson (University of Sydney)

        Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday, 14 October 1924.

• 1927 – 1934: H. Tasman Lovell (University of Sydney)
• 1935 – 1946: John Anderson (University of Sydney)
• 1947 – 1949: John Passmore (University of Sydney)
• 1950 – 1967: A.K. Stout (University of Sydney)
• 1968 – 1972 Graham Nerlich (University of Sydney)
• 1973 – 1977: Robert Brown (Australian National University)
• 1978 – 1989: Brian Ellis (La Trobe University)
• 1990 – 1997: Robert Young (La Trobe University)
• 1998 – 2001 (three joint editors): Fred D'Agostino (University of New England); Peter Forrest (University of New England); and Gerry Gaus (Queensland University of Technology)
• 2002 – 2007: Maurice Goldsmith (Victoria University of Wellington)
• December 2007 – December 2013: Stewart Candlish (University of Western Australia)
• From December 2013 (current editor): Stephen Hetherington (University of New South Wales).

Notable articles

Virtual Special Issue (2012)

Late in 2012, to celebrate the ninetieth volume of the Journal, the publishers of the journal (Taylor and Francis) released a Virtual Special Issue containing links to ten articles from past issues that had been personal chosen by the (then) editor Stewart Candlish:^[7]

• "Vagueness", by Bertrand Russell (1923).^[8]
• "Psycho-analysis and Æsthetics", by John Passmore (1936).^[9]
• "Mathematics and the World", by D.A.T. Gasking (1940).^[10]
• "Religious Discourse and Theological Discourse" by R.F. Holland (1956).^[11]
• "Definition by Internal Relation", by Judith Jarvis (1961).^[12]
• "Holes", by David Lewis and Stephanie Lewis (1970).^[13]
• "Guilt beyond Reasonable Doubt", by Barbara Davidson and Robert Pargetter (1987).^[14]
• "John Cage’s 4’33”: Is it music?", by Stephen Davies (1997).^[15]
• "Frege’s Judgement Stroke", by Nicholas J.J. Smith (2000).^[16]
• "Waitangi Tales", by Robert E. Goodin (2000).^[17]

Most cited

Aside from those listed above, the publisher's website (and Google Scholar) indicate that, in addition to Russell's "Vagueness" the following AJP articles are amongst those "most cited":^[18]

• "Questions", by C.L. Hamblin (1958).^[19]
• "Is there a logic of scientific discovery?", by Norwood Russell Hanson (1960).^[20]
• "Conclusive reasons", by Fred Dretske (1971).^[21]
• "A causal theory of counterfactuals", by Frank Jackson (1977).^[22]
• "Substance substantiated", by C.B. Martin (1980).^[23]
• "Causal decision theory", by David Lewis (1981).^[24]
• "The nature of natural laws", by Chris Swoyer (1982).^[25]
• "New work for a theory of universals", by David Lewis (1983).^[26]
• "Putnam's paradox", by David Lewis (1984).^[27]
• "The teleological notion of 'function'", by Karen Neander (1991).^[28]
• "Deciding to trust, coming to believe", by Richard Holton (1994).^[29]
• "Dispositional essentialism", by Brian Ellis and Caroline Lierse (1994).^[30]
• "Elusive knowledge", by David Lewis (1996).^[31]
• "The Express Knowledge Account of Assertion", by John Turri (2011).^[32]

AJP Best Paper Award

Ever since 2007, in conjunction with the Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis, the Australasian Association of Philosophy has awarded an annual prize of A$1,000 for the best paper published in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy in the previous year.^[33]

The winners are listed below:^[34]

• 2006: "The Legacy of Linguisticism", by John Heil.^[35]
• 2007: "From Nihilism to Monism", by Jonathan Schaffer.^[36]
• 2008: "The Error in the Error Theory", by Stephen Finlay.^[37]
• 2009: "Giving Dualism its Due", by William Lycan.^[38]
• 2010: "Epistemic Two-Dimensionalism and the Epistemic Argument", by Jeff Speaks.^[39]
• 2011: "Assessment-Contextual Indexicals", by Josh Parsons.^[40]
• 2012: "What is touch?", by Matthew Ratcliffe.^[41]
• 2013: "Science’s Immunity to Moral Refutation", by Alex Barber.^[42]

See also

• Australasian Association of Philosophy

Footnotes

References

• Young, R., "Australasian Journal Of Philosophy" in A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand, Monash University Publishing, (Clayton), 2010.

External links

• Australasian Association of Philosophy: Official AJP website
• Taylor & Francis Online: Publisher's AJP website
• Taylor & Francis Online: AJP Best Paper Award
• Australasian Association of Philosophy: AJP Best Paper Award
• Taylor & Francis Online: Publisher's list of "most cited" AJP articles (in the last three years)
• Taylor & Francis Online: Publisher's list of "most read" AJP articles (in the last three years)