Higher Institute of Philosophy


The Institut supérieur de Philosophie is an independent research institute at the University of Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. It is a separate entity to the UCLouvain School of Philosophy.
It was founded in Louvain in 1889 and split in 1968, when the French-speaking part moved to Louvain-la-Neuve.
The institute is known for its achievements in phenomenology and holds the archives of Edmund Husserl, Jean Ladrière, Michel Henry and Maurice Blondel.

History

The Institut supérieur de Philosophie was founded by Cardinal Mercier on 8 November 1889 with the intent to be a beacon of Neo-Thomist philosophy, although Philosophy and Theology have been taught at the universities of Leuven since 1425. The institute initially taught programs in French and started courses in Dutch in 1933. After the language split of 1968, the French-speaking Institut supérieur de Philosophie moved to the new city of Louvain-la-Neuve while the Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte is today a faculty of the KU Leuven, in Leuven.

Programs offered

With the UCLouvain's School of Philosophy, the institute offers both taught and research degrees as well as pre-doc and post-doc programs, in French and English.

Departments

The Institute, together with its Dutch-speaking counterpart in Leuven, are well known as the home of the Husserl-Archives, the research center responsible for the publication of the philosophical work of Edmund Husserl. After the death of the founder of the phenomenological movement, fearing for the destruction of his Nachlass at the hands of the Nazis, Father Herman Van Breda, PhD student at the institute of the Catholic University of Louvain, saved Husserl's manuscripts, library and widow and smuggled them to Leuven via diplomatic channels. The Louvain-la-Neuve archive also contains a complete copy of the documents present in Leuven.

Prizes awarded by the Higher Institute of Philosophy

The Higher Institute of Philosophy awards two prizes:
Internationally renowned professors who have lectured at the institute: