Guided Enquiry – What is Philosophy in Practice, and What Follows? Dec 14th 2005

Report by Tim LeBon

 

On Wednesday, in the rooms of the Swedenborg Society,  the Society for Philosophy in Practice (SPP) gathered together to enquire into the nature of philosophy in practice.

After some introductions concerning the nature of the enquiry, I put up  a "straw man" definition

 

Philosophy in Practice - Definition 1

Using philosophical insights and methods to help people reflect wisely

 

This definition been adapted from a definition of philosophical counselling.

 

Philosophical Counselling

An approach to counselling that uses philosophical insights and methods to help clients reflect wisely on their lives. Specific issues tackled include career change, relationships, decisions & the good life. Gerd Achenbach  opened the first practice in 1981.

 

The participants were invited to play Socrates – well, almost. Rather than the destructive ripping apart  definition 1, a more constructive approach was suggested.. The method (technical and ugly name: regressive abstraction, more sensible name: learning from examples) means taking examples of whatever we trying to define – in this case philosophy in practice, and teasing out a definition from the examples.

 

Fortunately we had a number of experts in the room about the various forms of philosophical practice – Socratic Dialogue, Philosophy For Children (P4C) and Practical Philosophy workshops.

 

We turned to Socratic Dialogue first, which was described as follows:-[1]

 

Socratic Dialogue

A group reflects on a question by focussing on one participant’s concrete example. Developed by German philosopher Leonard Nelson, it is particularly popular in management.

 

Was our “straw man” definition adequate to incorporate Socratic Dialogue? The first point made was that our definition left out a key feature, namely it being a collaborative process.. So our definition became:-

 

Philosophy in Practice - Definition 2

A collaborative process using philosophical insights and methods to help people reflect wisely

 

Attention now turned to the outcome part of the definition. “Reflecting wisely” was reckoned to be too modest – Socratic Dialogue is also about gaining philosophical insights.. So the definition became:

 

Philosophy in Practice - Definition 3

A collaborative process using philosophical insights and methods to help people reflect wisely and discovering philosophical insights.

 


If this definition worked for PC and SD, would it also cover our third form of philosophy in practice, Practical Philosophy workshops? 

 

Practical Philosophy Workshops

Topics include wisdom, love and the good  life.  Students hear about the ideas of the great thinkers and develop their own ideas, helped by learning philosophical methods like conceptual analysis & critical thinking.

 

Again, it was too modest. In the series of workshop I described,  the aim is for the participants to become wiser, by considering  a whole host of philosophers and learning philosophical methods and applying them to a variety of topics. So the definition needed to include an element of people becoming wiser and about developing their thinking skills.

 

Philosophy in Practice - Definition 4

A collaborative process using philosophical insights and methods to help people reflect and think wisely and discovering philosophical insights and becoming wiser

 

Nash Popovic, who runs personal synthesis/education courses, added that we needed to add the element of action – in his classes (as is so to a lesser extent in my own) – theory is connected with the participants own life situations. So we need to something about acting wisely

 

Philosophy in Practice - Definition 5

A collaborative process using philosophical insights and methods to help people reflect think and act wisely and discover philosophical insights and becoming wiser

.

Our definition 5 was much more sophisticated and complete than the one we had started with, merely 30 minutes earlier. Maybe this enquiry itself was a good example of philosophy in practice! But would it stand the test of seeing whether it adequately covered our fourth variety of philosophy in practice, Philosophy With Children.

 

 

Philosophy With Children

Participants respond to (usually) a story by choosing their own questions and thinking through them together. Inspired  by Matthew Lipman, P4C aims to  develop both thinking skills &   philosophical curiosity.

 

Almost … But it was felt that P4C places particular emphasis on the skill of questioning, and so this needs to be added to the definition.

 

Philosophy in Practice - Definition 6

A collaborative process using philosophical insights and methods to help people question. Reflect, think and act wisely and discover philosophical insights and becoming wiser

 

That was where we left it on the night, but here’s my attempt to tidy up definition 6

 

Philosophy in Practice - Definition 6 a)

A collaborative process using philosophical insights and methods to help people become wiser. They become wiser by being better able to reflect, think and act more wisely and by discovering philosophical insights.

 

Of course all the definitions raised an obvious question which people weren’t slow to pick up – what is this thing we are calling “wisdom?”, isn’t a really philosopher someone who denies being wise? How exactly does philosophy help one be wise. These are all good questions, and we resolved that the nature of wisdom itself would be a really good candidate for examination next year – possibly by using all the philosophical practices we were looking at.

 

Does the definition cover all of the 4 types of philosophical practice? Can Philosophical Counselling, Socratic Dialogue, Practical Philosophy workshops and P4C all be described in these terms? I believe so, although the extent to which the various practices can be called “collaborative” or can be said to lead to wisdom varies not only between practice but also between practitioners.

 

The following table is my attempt to capture some of this range in terms of various dimensions of philosophy in practice.

 

Dimensions of Philosophy in Practice

 

Participant-centred

Philosopher-centred

For groups

For individuals

Philosophy-only

Integrative

Structured

Unstructured

Aiming at wisdom

Problem-oriented

Intrinsically worthwhile

Instrumental

Participants philosophise

Participants learn

Philosopher states view

Philosopher is  “midwife”

 

 

We looked briefly at what follows from this definition.

If this was philosophy in practice, then amongst its benefits might be included:-

Wisdom, discernment, fun, deeper satisfaction, happiness, well-being, problem solving, enjoying flow and a sense of community.

 

What about possible dangers:-

The Epicurean garden model might be considered self-indulgent, gurus claiming to be wise were a danger , as was being told about wisdom rather than discovering it yourself (“the need to climb the mountain yourself”). Moving on to limitations of Philosophy in Practice, can philosophy really be either sufficient or necessary for wisdom? Shamil Chandaria asked whether we were in danger of confusing an “is” and an “ought” – this may be what philosophy in practice is, but is it what it ought to be? Shamil gave a vote for the “Workshop” model, which is at the “philosopher-centred” rather than “participant-centred” scale of the spectrum.


 

The enquiry adjourned, seemingly with a taste for more ….


[1 The various philosophical practices are colour-coded to highlight which practices led to which part of the definition. Ha