The magazine was initially published in Lewis' home town of Ipswich (England). Peter Rickman soon became one of the most regular contributors.[4] In 1997, a group of American philosophers including Raymond Pfeiffer and Charles Echelbarger lobbied the American Philosophical Association to start a similar magazine in the United States.[5] The then APA executive director Eric Hoffman arranged a meeting in Philadelphia in 1997, to which Lewis was invited.[5] At the meeting, it was decided that the American group should join forces with Lewis to further develop Philosophy Now. Since that time, the magazine has been produced jointly by two editorial boards, in the UK and US.[6] The magazine is distributed in the US by the Philosophy Documentation Center.