Aims and Object

see new site: https://www.aips.be 

The object of the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (AIPS, International Academy for the Philosophy of the Sciences) is to try to reach a synthesis on the fundamental questions of the philosophy of the sciences in an interdisciplinary manner. It is to overcome all divisions, national, linguistic, institutional, and philosophical, in a spirit of research both free and exact, research in which results are shared with a view to a critical and intellectually fruitful outcome, in an environment favourable to personal and friendly contact between those engaged in the study. The organization of regular colloquia (annually up to this point) is the favoured means of offering such an environment. This web site is intended to be an extension of it, but also a means of sharing more widely in the ideas arising from these debates. AIPS was created in 1947 by a Dominican Friar, Father Stanislas Dockx, a philosopher and theologian who was also a physicist and mathematician, with a concern for synthesis and epistemological critique. From 1945 onwards he had been in personal contact with the most prominent scientists of the period, such as Bernays, Beth, Born, Bridgman, Brouwer, Carnap, Church, Curry, de Broglie, Destouches, Einstein, Frank, Frechet, Gonseth, Heisenberg, Kleene, Kotarbinski, Pauli, Piaget, Polya, Popper, Sierpinski, Schrödinger, Whittaker, Wiener, Yukawa. These encouraged his project to create an Institut International des Sciences Théoriques (International Institute for Theoretical Sciences), of which AIPS became one of the two branches. Many of them agreed to become founding members. In 1949 a first, inaugural, colloquium took place in the Palais des Académies in Brussels. Over a long period some sixty colloquia have been organized (annually since 1961) in different university centres throughout the world, each time leading to a publication.

The Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (AIPS) is one of two branches, with the Académie Internationale des Sciences religieuses (AISR, International Academy for Religious Sciences), of the Institut International des Sciences Théoriques (International Institute for Theoretical Sciences), which Father Dockx, who was both theologian and ecumenist, founded in 1944. There too he sought to gather the best experts to discuss the fundamental questions of theology, transcending all divisions, confessional, national, linguistic and academic, in a spirit of free enquiry. Joint colloquia are organized from time to time.

The Academy is quite independent of any superior authority. Its funding was ensured originally by an important legacy of the Dockx family. The association gets no public or institutional subsidy. It is the Patrimony of the International Institute for Theoretical Sciences (Patrimoine de l'Institut International des Sciences Théoriques –PIIST) which annually provides for each of the two Academies a grant to organize planned activities. These activities are planned, with complete autonomy as regards content, by the General Meeting (Assemblée Générale) of elected members held in the course of the annual colloquium. Members, whether offering themselves as candidates, or nominated by existing members to the Academic Committee (Conseil académique), are elected for life at the same general meeting on presentation by the Academic Committee. This ensures, in the spirit of the Academy, the quality of the candidates whom it agrees to present to the General Meeting. Members are asked for no subscription. No fee is charged for participation or for residence during colloquia; members pay only their travelling expenses. Administrative arrangements are managed by a Secretariat which serves both Academies.