The purpose of the philosophy-history list is to support inquiries into the history of philosophy and into how the nature of philosophy may be disclosed by studying its history.

Originally, when it was hosted on The Free Lance Academy's own freelance-academy.org server, this was simply called the philosophy list and was intended for general discussions about the nature of philosophy and about the condition of the profession. However, since June of 1998 the philosophy list has intermittently hosted a slow survey of the history of philosophy, using Frederick Copleston's History of Philosophy as a text, and, since that is now the dominant topic and seems likely to remain so for quite some time, it is appropriate to have the name of the list now accurately reflect the content of its messages.

The main purpose of The Free Lance Academy is to create opportunities for serious, committed intellectual inquiry outside the university, primarily by means of online media such as internet mailing lists. For the names of other lists in this group, search on the relevant keywords listed below.

In the belief that the most effective way to learn something is to teach it, another of the principal aims of The Free Lance Academy is to provide opportunities for teaching, especially for people who might not otherwise have such an opportunity. If you would like to become a discussion leader of this list or any other list hosted by The Free Lance Academy, please contact Lance Fletcher, the President of The Free Lance Academy, at: lrf@aya.yale.edu.

Keywords: The Free Lance Academy, freelance, freelance-academy, philosophy, slow reading, history of philosophy