Rick Lewis is the founder and editor of ''

Philosophy Now ''Philosophy Now'' is a bimonthly philosophy magazine sold from news-stands and book stores in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Canada; it is also available on digital devices, and online. It aims to appeal to the general educat ...

'' and thereby one of the main initiators of the popular philosophy movement in the English-speaking world.

Work

Lewis launched ''Philosophy Now'' in 1991, the first ever philosophy magazine worldwide. This new initiative facilitated a wave of popular philosophy activities in Great Britain, the United States, and elsewhere, which has since strengthened, and to the present owes much of its impetus to Lewis' work. A few years after launching the magazine, Lewis succeeded in having it accepted by the UK news trade, making it the first philosophy title to appear on ordinary news stands. In the mid-1990s,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and other countries saw a wave of philosophy cafés, informal philosophy meetings held in cafes. The first of these were created by Marc Sautet in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and by the late 1990s they numbered in the hundreds. In 1998 Lewis and his ''Philosophy Now'' colleague Bryn R. Williams were among the first to import this innovation into

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

, adapting it to the local culture by holding philosophy meetings in pubs rather than cafés. Their first Pub Philosophy meeting was held at The Glassblower in

Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End of London, West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a ''List of road junctions in the Unite ...

, and was reported on by Radio London; later meetings took place in another West End pub, The Clachan.Drinks & Thinks. ''Philosophy Now'' Issue 20, Spring 1998. Lewis lives in South

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and has been a guest on philosophy-related programmes on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

and elsewhere. He also translated and published the Philosophy Now in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

for the first time with AmirAli Maleki, the founder and editor of Praxis Publication.

References

External links

Philosophy Now
official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Rick Living people British magazine editors Year of birth missing (living people) Philosophy journalists