Socratic Dialogue UK (SDUK) was formerly the Society for the Furtherance of Critical Philosophy (SFCP). In 2025 we merged with our sister organisation in Germany, Philosophisch-Politische Akademie (PPA).
SFCP was formed in 1940 as an independent UK charity. (A list of Trustees from 1940 until 2025 is here).
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the children’s school at the Walkemuhle fled with their teachers, Minna Specht and Gustav Heckmann first to Denmark, then to UK. They bought a property near Bristol, Butcombe Court, to run as a school. Minna Specht, Grete Hermann and Benedicte Gregerson created a foundation to support the school, which was formed into a charity called ‘Society for the Furtherance of Critical Philosophy’, SFCP.
(Display boards written and created by Dieter Krohn)
Timeline
Rene Saran and her pivotal role in the SFCP
Video of Rene at 100, June 2021. A joint celebration organised by BELMAS (Rene was Vice-President) and Society for the Furtherance of Critical Philosophy (SFCP). On Rene’s birthday on 15th June 2021.
Gustav Heckmann (22 April 1898 – 8 June 1996) a German philosopher and teacher, particularly associated with philosophical extrapolations from the Socratic Dialogue format, pioneered by his mentor and friend Leonard Nelson, with which Heckmann continued to work after Nelson died.
Leonard Nelson
In the 1920s the Kantian philosopher Leonard Nelson and his co-worker Minna Specht founded an experimental school in Germany, which was based on their philosophical conviction. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the school fled to Denmark, then to Britain. The SFCP was established in 1940 to support the continuation of the school based on Nelson’s Critical Philosophy. Over the years the society has expanded its aims of supporting the Socratic method in education and now organises philosophical conferences, holds Socratic Dialogues, and publishes books.
