"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly." - Henri-Louis Bergson

The Philosophical Research Society is a nonprofit organization founded in 1934 for the purpose of providing thoughtful persons rare access to the depth and breadth of the world’s wisdom literature. The Society is entirely free from doctrinal, political, or ecclesiastical control and therefore provides a learning environment sheltered from any interest intending to coerce or convert. 

The goal of this institution is to enable the individual to develop a mature philosophy of life in association with a diverse and stimulating community of others, each dedicated to understanding and appreciating their unique possibilities in the unfolding universal pattern.

The current president of PRS is Obadiah S. Harris, Ph.D. who, throughout his career, has combined his skills as a community educator and administrator with study of the world's wisdom traditions. Since 1993, he has found a home for these experiences and abilities as President of the Philosophical Research Society. Dr. Harris received his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Michigan as a Stewart Mott Foundation Fellow. His work in community education includes service as Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Community Education at New Mexico State University, and as Associate Professor and Director of the Regional Center for Community Education at Arizona State University. Dr. Harris's study and practice of the great Eastern and Western traditions has helped shape and direct his life.

At PRS (and UPR) we start with a single word: Philosophy. This one word comes from the ancient Greeks for whom phileo meant "love" and sophia meant "wisdom."

As elementary and apparent as it may seem, this one word, this "love of wisdom," raises two profound questions: what is love, and what is wisdom? We are instantly confronted with the challenge of two great mysteries.

The Greeks often might have spoken in diverse ways about the meaning of philosophy: greedy for wisdom, lusting after wisdom, pursuing wisdom as the way of personal glory. But much more did they insist that "love" meant giving affectionate attention and care in an unselfconscious way to wisdom. That is the very cornerstone of PRS and UPR.

Wisdom is insight into the nature of things, a fundamental acquaintance with Reality. All of the great insights of humankind, which history has managed to preserve, are the priceless inheritance of every person. It is the clear goal of PRS and UPR to provide "lovers of wisdom" access to that treasure which is their birthright.

Thus one word reveals our purpose and shapes our method. From this understanding we carefully draw our principles. They guide the administration of our organization:

• Inclusiveness — We look to include wisdom from its every source and to make it accessible to all who value it.

• Advocacy — We are not partisan nor do we endorse any one particular tradition or person.

• Freedom — We consider the quiet urgings of each heart to be the proper personal guide in the process of self-discovery. Each person is urged freely to compare and reference their natural knowing with the finest expressions of humanity's deepest insights. We expect this process to create resonance which best leads each person on his or her unique path of learning and discovery.

• Quality Resources — To the greatest extent possible, we strive to have all of our resources distinguished by carefully referenced scholarship supported by direct experience and field work. We seek to continually refine and update our offerings as discoveries come to light and errors are uncovered.

• Community — Stimulating and good spirited interaction reflect the fact that we are a community of discovery, not just isolated individuals. Ours is the path of ecumenism and a journey of shared meanings. We are part of a movement toward World Culture in which all wisdom traditions and the highest expressions of our spiritual heritage are honored. We yearn for a planetary citizenship in which social justice and compassion aim toward a transformation of humankind.

Manly P. Hall, the Philosophical Research Society's first president, was a seeker and lover of wisdom, the very definition of a philosopher. He had the courage and the raw intellectual energy to look for wisdom in places most men had long since forgotten about, or never knew existed. He lived in an era when most Americans did not look toward other cultures and traditions, without looking down. Yet during such times, Manly P. Hall spoke, and wrote extensively, of the wisdom found in all ancient traditions. In an age when serious study of "other religions" was anathema to most, he found deep cross-cultural threads and revealed many interconnected roots of modern religious expression. Neither Guru nor Saint, he made no claim of perfection, far from it; but his work is exceedingly rare in its grand scope, detail and synthesis. He embraced the wisdom of every tradition, and, with a fluid command of their obscure and complex contents, worked to express their unifying truths. His legacy is over 200 printed volumes, 8000 lectures, a hand picked library which is one of the finest in the field, and a Society and University that continue in his spirit of universal exploration and learning.