The autumn philosophy calendar: three dates in November

The summer lull is over. Three dates stand out in the autumn programme of the international philosophy calendar — and all three fall in November.

6-7 November · Shanghai#

Fudan University is holding a two-day congress titled "Timothy Williamson Encountering Chinese Philosophy".

Scholars working in Chinese philosophy will assess Williamson's theses in epistemology, metaphysics and philosophical method from within their own tradition; Williamson will reply after each session.

The format is no less interesting than the content. Comparative philosophy meetings often turn into parallel presentations of two traditions; the arrangement here sets up a direct encounter, with one thinker's position tested against another tradition's concepts and the thinker himself defending it.

Williamson's knowledge-first epistemology — the thesis that knowledge is a basic mental state that cannot be decomposed — lends itself to that kind of test, because the analysability of knowledge is a question posed differently in the Chinese tradition.

10 November · Japan#

The Inamori Foundation's 41st Kyoto Prize ceremony takes place on this date.

The prize is awarded in three fields: Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy. This year's laureate in Arts and Philosophy is the multimedia artist Laurie Anderson.

That field is a significant reference point for the philosophy community: Jürgen Habermas (2004), Charles Taylor (2008) and Martha Nussbaum (2016) have all received it.

Laureates receive a diploma, a 20-carat gold medal and 100 million yen.

19 November · worldwide#

World Philosophy Day is marked each year on the third Thursday of November by decision of UNESCO. This year it falls on 19 November.

The point of the day is not symbolic celebration: it is to make philosophy's capacity for critical thinking visible in the face of social problems. UNESCO calls on universities, schools and cultural institutions in member states to organise their own programmes.

A note on the past calendar#

Two summer events were worth recording. In early July the symposium "AI Consciousness and Ethics" met at the University of Sussex as part of AISB-2026; in mid-August the 19th Summer School in Cologne took up folk epistemology and scientific scepticism.

Both point the same way: epistemology is moving from being an academic sub-discipline to the centre of the current argument.

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