Practical Philosophy Research Articles

Worlding with the Creal: Autonomous Intelligence and Philosophical Practice

Philosophical practice is guided by an ideal of autonomous intelligence: to think for oneself. But is a fully autonomous form of intelligence possible? Autonomy in thinking may be thought to be relative or absolute. First, one may imagine an asymptotic social process of self-ruling; in this case, to become philosophically healthy would then mean to become more virtuous and more autonomous cognitively, relative to others or to a previous version of ourselves. But there seems to be a contradiction here, as autonomy seems to imply, by definition, completeness rather than comparison or relativity, the latter being seen as a form of dependence. Hence, a second stance, absolute rather than relative: the idea that some humans can achieve a perfect state of philosophical health, implying full autonomous intelligence. This hypothesis was historically thought to imply a state of autarkia, self-divinization, or autotheosis: being divine by one’s own effort. Many have forgotten that most ancient philosophers, chief among them Epicurus, Plato, and Aristotle, thought this likeness to a god (homoiosis theoi) to be the reward of theoria, a theoretical life. I argue that we can reconcile relative and absolute cognition by understanding autonomous intelligence to be a cosmotheosis: a becoming divine not as an act of singular separation, but by welcoming the multiversal reality that we already are, and partaking in the universal creative worlding process referred to here as “Creal”. In this sense, philosophical practice calls for a pantheistic form of religiosity; a shared cosmology that compossibilizes all intercreative entities.

Anthrozoology and Philosophical Practice

Parallel to the philosophical practice movement that was revived in the 80s, human-animal studies, sometimes known as anthrozoology or animal studies, is gaining more and more ground to this day in the Western academic world. In my paper I demonstrate today’s dog keepers, as the walking philosophers of the 21th century, by outlining the turns of thought leading to the discipline of human-animal studies through Harriet Ritvo’s 2007 animal turn. With the examination of the social role of XXI. century Western urban dog keeping in the light of the philosophical café movement, I argue for the idea that urban dog keeping is an alternative form of philosophical lifestyle, moreover, a significant example of philosophical practice. If we accept the thesis that the dog has always been present next to humans, then the relevant question is how it is present in humans’ lives now, and if it is different than before, then what are the reasons behind this. Analyzing Ritvo’s animal turn and the practical turn in philosophy, I draw conclusions regarding the reasons for the changes in the post human, arriving at the presentation of the idea of critical dog studies, in short dogism, which is the author’s research area and invention.

From experimental philosophy to philosophical practice, via feminist epistemology: the use of subjects’ intuitions in empirical research and philosophical counseling

The article examines, at preliminary (yet pioneering) level(s), the relationship between experimental philosophy, feminist epistemology and (at a subsidiary, incipient, level) philosophical practice. We opted for a broad approach of the basic premise of experimental philosophy – that even the intuitions of those who are not philosophers can be particularly useful in addressing philosophical issues – and that feminist epistemology is a tool compatible with the former in exploring ways to integrate these methodologies optimally into theorizing. As illustrations and instantiations of this new philosophical perspective based on empirical research we used an the results of an innovative sociological study of perceptions and intuitions of subjects regarding a specific socio-cultural reality and its compatibility with various approaches from the field of philosophical practice.

Ancient shamanic emotional healing techniques and today’s philosophical counseling

In shamanic thinking, an important idea is that the earth does not belong to us. Earth is just a wonderful and welcoming host for us and other species. Did the sense of ownership dehumanize us, as the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau would observe? Maybe. Lust for wealth, greed, and selfishness, these traits specific only to human people, among all inhabitants of our planet led, over time, to irreversible planetary changes. Earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, and floods: all these disasters seem to be the consequences of human reprehensible acts. Not only the rapid climate changes but also the recent wars and the pandemics have attracted emotional and psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, or PTSD, a phenomenon that is growing alarmingly worldwide. In these difficulties times I believe the shamanic techniques could work together with philosophical counseling to heal us, opening the way to a peaceful and balanced understanding of our relationship with the Universe and ourselves.

The Method and Process of the Philosophical Café: Workshop Analysis

The philosophical café method sparked my interest due to its design purpose of bringing back philosophy in contact with the everyday person and by the fact that it is a group practice, entailing the need for people to interact with one another and exchange philosophical ideas in the process. The 17th International Conference of Philosophical Practice held in Timisoara, Romania in 2023 granted me the opportunity to work with this method having as attendants a group of international participants. The workshop I conducted, titled “Experiencing the Café-philo”, revolved around the topic of the possibility of using philosophical counselling as a helping tool in alleviating the consequences technological alienation has on the human being. The first part of the article takes on the task of getting a better understanding of what does the philosophical café method actually mean, by taking a look at the method and practice it implies, as well as trying to determine whether it really implies philosophizing or not. Having had a deeper knowledge of the method we have worked with during the workshop, the second part of the article is meant to be an analysis off the philosophical café process that was undertook during this workshop.

The philosophical questions of the counselees

I propose the view that the philosophical counselling has to be “client oriented” that is, oriented by the counselees’ philosophical questions. Counselees are not always aware of the philosophical aspects of the dilemmas, confusions, conflicts etc. behind their sense of inability to deal satisfactorily with their difficulties. Unless they are already philosophers, they do not tend to conceive their personal philosophical problem as a particular instance of a general philosophical problem. Even if they do, they are not always capable to formulate philosophical questions. Yet they do have philosophical questions. They have such questions because, whatever have caused them to conceive something as a problem in their problem-situation, some ready-made, mostly inherited unexamined, taken for granted philosophical answers to possible philosophical questions are, so to speak, “called into question”. People, including philosophers, learn such answers unknowingly (of course, not as answers but as “evident truths”, “facts”, “moral imperatives” etc.), before it occurs to them that such questions can be asked. Most of our beliefs, including the philosophical ones, belong to that category of answers to unasked questions. The pretension to be able to hold only examined beliefs is, therefore, non-realistic, and it is mistaken to assume that the unexamined ideas are the cause of our difficulties. The philosophical counsellor, as a trained philosopher, should know how to help the counselees realize what is at stake, formulate explicitly their questions, examine the unsatisfactory answers and explore alternatives ones - that is what philosophers normally do when they want to help colleagues, students (or past philosophers) who “got stuck” in their philosophical projects. I deal with the implications of that conviction for philosophical counselling.

Some Lessons from Alcibiades 1 and Plato’s Seventh Letter for Philosophical Practitioners

In this paper I illuminate several themes that I find of great import in understanding the practice of Philosophical Practice as a process. I do this through a careful consideration of two often disputed texts by Plato: Alcibiades 1 and Plato’s Seventh Letter. I do not wish to defend the authenticity of the authorship of the texts, but simply extol the usefulness and appropriateness of these two lesser considered texts as displaying a number of important teachings that I often use in Philosophical Practice. I take these teachings to be central to Plato’s meta-philosophy and the notion of self-concept.

Philosophical meditation in the West

How can we return to meditation in the West today? Descartes was the last person to meditate in the West, but after him, the gnoseology of his thought was all that prevailed, as well as the rift between subject and object: thinking, meditating, thus, became a form of reflection on something, which is an object detached from the subject who thinks. The philosophy of the twentieth century questioned the cogito, but it did not restore meditation. This is the task of philosophical practice. But how can we restore Western meditation? The essay attempts to demonstrate a way to meditate today, to allow emotions to live, to welcome them and allow them to mellow. It also shows how meditation is a continuous source of comparison for philosophical practitioners so they can preserve their humility as they perform their task, dismiss authority, and welcome the guest without the risk of manipulating him or her, by listening to the guest while also challenging their own preconceived ideas and past emotions.

The Kashmiri Nondualism and the Philosophical Counseling. On the Nonduality of the Consciousness

The paper aims to present the role of the philosophy of mind and consciousness for the philosophical practice (philosophical practice) and to explore the possibility of a transpersonal philosophical counseling.

Практическая составляющая ранней греческой философии

Introduction. The relevance of «practical philosophy» is contrasted with «traditional philosophy», detached from life. The final perspective sees the harmonization of theoretical-practical and practical-theoretical activity of philosophers, based on the appropriate historical and logical rethinking of the history of philosophy. The classical beginning is to emphasize the practical component of early Greek philosophy. Theoretical analysis. The direct connection to life unites Thales as a sage with Thales as a philosopher (the widespread idea of the remoteness of Thales' philosophy from practice is criticized as being engaged by the dominant theoretical-practical paradigm of philosophy). The expert model of the practical component of Thales' philosophy generally characterizes the Milesian school and the Eleates. The absence of effective philosophical practice contributes to the skepticism of Xenophanes and the tragic nature of Heraclitus' work. Political activity of Pythagoreans is the objective maximum of the practical component of philosophy (political model of the practical component of philosophy). The problematic nature of philosophers' political activity, the growth and complication of theoretical research lead the ancient atomists towards the formation of a theoretical-practical model of philosophical activity. Conclusion. The problem of connection with life was positively solved in the work of Thales and was significant for all early Greek philosophy. This should be taken into account in the further study of the history of philosophy; the latter is in essence the school of thought that contributes to the harmonization of theoretical and practical activities of modern philosophy.

Philosophy and morality in practice through media texts: review of the web series Kaala Paani

Philosophy and morality in practice through media texts: review of the web series Kaala Paani

A hagyomány klasszikus és kortárs diskurzusai

This thematic compilation contains the proceedings of the conference organised by the Practical Philosophy and the Classical Tradition Research Group within the Institute of Philosophy at the Centre for the Humanities (Hun-Ren). The aim of the event was to examine contemporary and classical approaches to tradition. The selected texts seek to illuminate some aspects of the topic.

Between the genotype and the phenotype lies the microbiome: symbiosis and the making of ‘postgenomic’ knowledge

Emphatic claims of a “microbiome revolution” aside, the study of the gut microbiota and its role in organismal development and evolution is a central feature of so-called postgenomics; namely, a conceptual and/or practical turn in contemporary life sciences, which departs from genetic determinism and reductionism to explore holism, emergentism and complexity in biological knowledge-production. This paper analyses the making of postgenomic knowledge about developmental symbiosis in Drosophila melanogaster by a specific group of microbiome scientists. Drawing from both practical philosophy of science and Science and Technology Studies, the paper documents epistemological questions of artefactuality and representativeness of model organisms as they emerge in the day-to-day labour producing and being produced by the “microbiome revolution." Specifically, the paper builds on all the written and editorial exchanges involved in the troubled publication of a research paper studying the symbiotic role of the microbiota in the flies’ development. These written materials permit us to delimit the network of justifications, evidence, standards of knowledge-production, trust in the tools and research designs that make up the conditions of possibility of a postgenomic fact. More than reframing the organism as a radically novel multiplicity of reactive genomes, we conclude, doing postgenomic research on the microbiota and symbiosis means producing a story that deviates from the scripts embedded into the sociotechnical experimental systems of post-Human Genome Project life sciences.

A Randomized, Controlled, Preliminary Study to Assess the Efficacy of Logic-Based Therapy in Reducing Anxiety and/or Depression in Family Caregivers

This paper analyzes the findings of a preliminary, controlled efficacy study conducted by the National Philosophical Counseling Association of a prominent modality of philosophical counseling, Logic-Based Therapy (LBT). In this study, the latter modality was compared to a mindfulness activity. The study included 20 caretakers randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The hypothesis investigated was that a one-hour LBT session is more effective in reducing the level of (state or trait) anxiety and/or depression in family caregivers than a one-hour mindfulness session. Utilizing data compiled from study participants’ responses to the State Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-2), two-way mixed ANOVA tests on three variables (state anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression (BDI-2) scores) were performed as well as paired analyses yielding the preliminary conclusion (pending a more extensive study) that LBT shows promise as an effective intervention for reducing state anxiety as compared to the control condition, the mindfulness activity.

A co-design living labs philosophy of practice for end-to-end research design to translation with people with lived-experience of mental ill-health and carer/family and kinship groups.

There is increased recognition that people with lived-experience of mental ill-health ought to be centred in research design, implementation and translation, and quality improvement and program evaluation of services. There is also an increased focus on ways to ensure that co-design processes can be led by people with lived-experience of mental ill-health. Despite this, there remains limited explanation of the physical, social, human, and economic infrastructure needed to create and sustain such models in research and service settings. This is particularly pertinent for all health service sectors (across mental and physical health and social services) but more so across tertiary education settings where research generation occurs for implementation and translation activities with policy and services. The Co-Design Living Labs program was established in 2017 as an example of a community-based embedded approach to bring people living with trauma and mental ill-health and carers/family and kinship group members together with university-based researchers to drive end-to-end research design to translation in mental healthcare and research sectors. The program's current membership is near to 2000 people. This study traces the evolution of the program in the context of the living labs tradition of open innovation. It overviews the philosophy of practice for working with people with lived-experience and carer/family and kinship group members-togetherness by design. Togetherness by design centres on an ethical relation of being-for that moves beyond unethical and transactional approaches of being-aside and being-with, as articulated by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. The retrospective outlines how an initial researcher-driven model can evolve and transform to become one where people with lived-experience of mental ill-health and carer/family kinship group members hold clear decision-making roles, share in power to enact change, and move into co-researcher roles within research teams. Eight mechanisms are presented in the context of an explanatory theoretical model of change for co-design and coproduction, which are used to frame research co-design activities and provide space for continuous learning and evolution of the Co-Design Living Labs program.

Methods and lessons in theatrical practice as social work

ABSTRACT Stemming from the combined philosophies of social work and professional artistic practice, this paper recounts five years of working with populations of fifth graders to craft their own original plays. Application of group development theory in our evolving theatrical process emphasizes several lessons, including utilizing a population’s observed need(s) to derive socioemotional purpose; the ownership a group discovers when creating its own material; and the importance of centering what two communities have to offer each other in mutual aid. The 509 classroom at PS3 is a case study for the immense socioemotional impact artistic practice can have when student need is not neglected in favor of academic skill acquisition.

Effective Altruism, Islamic Philanthropy, and Public Welfare: A Critique

Islamic philanthropy is often seen as a major articulation of Islamic principles of wealth redistribution and social justice, especially in rural and peripheral areas. In this mainstream narrative, the economic mandate of Islam is seen from a prism of noblesse oblige and/or reformism, turning the Islamic notion of solidarity into an individualized obligation for charity and almsgiving. This embourgeoisement of Islamic economic ethics overlaps with and embodies the idea of Effective Altruism (EA), a utilitarian practical philosophy of philanthropy for the most pressing social causes which has grown into a gigantic industry-cum-fad of the global capitalist elites. This article presents a critique of EA, EA-adjacent practices of Islamic philanthropy, and alternative economic proposals for rural welfare. To do so, this article uses insights from critical studies of political thought, critical political economy, and solidarity economy literature as an analytical lens in analyzing EA and Islamic philanthropy and formulating a synthesis of Islamic economic ethics and alter-capitalist rural welfare practices and institutions. This paper concludes that Islamic philanthropy and EA have serious limitations in improving rural welfare, especially in Global South countries such as Indonesia, and shows alternative pathways for agrarian justice.

‘Does the Claim that there are no Theories Imply that there is no History of Theories to be Written?(!)’*

AbstractInThere Are No Such Things As Theories(French 2020), the reification of theories is critically analysed and rejected. My aim here is to tease out some of the implications of this approach first of all, for how we, philosophers of science, should view the history of science; secondly, for how we should understand the devices that we use in our own philosophical practices; and thirdly, for how we might think about the relationship between the history of science and the philosophy of science.

Caring for patients during voluntarily stopping of eating and drinking (VSED): experiences of a palliative care team in Germany

BackgroundHealth-care professionals are confronted with patients who wish to end their lives through voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED). During VSED, symptoms such as agitation, thirst or psychological distress may arise, thus making close medical accompaniment necessary. Dealing with these symptoms can put a high burden on palliative care teams. Furthermore, divergent perceptions of the ethical classification of VSED may lead to moral distress. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of experience gained over time on the burden of palliative care professionals while accompanying patients during VSED and to assess the perceptions of coping strategies.MethodsThis is a prospective single-centre study conducted at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Palliative Care at University Hospital Duesseldorf, Germany. At two points in time (T1, T2) one year apart, team members of all professions who were actively involved in the accompaniment were eligible to complete a pretested questionnaire.ResultsTeam members perceived the symptom complex of psychological distress, anxiety, and agitation to be the most burdensome symptoms for the patients (T1: 28/49, 57.1%; T2: 33/59, 55.9%). Thirst was the second most observed symptom (T1: 17/49, 34.7%, T2: 19/59, 32.2%). These were also the most burdensome symptoms for individual team members. Most team members found there were no general moral concerns. There was a decrease in the perceived importance of support strategies such as ethical counselling (85.7% versus 63.6%).ConclusionsAccompanying patients during VSED is a challenge for health-care professionals. When comparing T2 to T1, less emphasis lies on the importance of ethical counselling or psychiatric assessment to build a foundation for the accompaniment. Moral and ethical concerns seem to play a minor role. More in-depth studies covering a bigger sample size as well as qualitative studies are needed.

Book Review - Happiness in Kant’s Practical Philosophy: Morality, Indirect Duties, and Welfare Rights by Alice Pinheiro Walla (Lexington Books, 2022)

Book Review - Happiness in Kant’s Practical Philosophy: Morality, Indirect Duties, and Welfare Rights by Alice Pinheiro Walla (Lexington Books, 2022)