Philosophical Practice – serie

Wonder, Silence, and Human Flourishing: Toward a Rehumanization of Health, Education, and Welfare approaches humanization and the process of re-enchantment in a radical new way. For more than a decade the call for rehumanization in education, care and welfare has been heard and discussed primarily in critical thinking, political theory, and sociological discourses. This critique is mainly based on a social constructivist and naturalistic worldview that keeps the discussion in an anthropocentric perspective. By focusing on the phenomenology and ethics of wonder as an ontological and even spiritual event, and by listening to the silence that follows this contemplative wonder, the contributors offer an existential, phenomenological, and hermeneutic way of understanding humanization. Edited by Finn Thorbjørn Hansen, Solveig Eide Botnen, and Carlo Leget, the book shows, from various perspectives, that the force of wonder and the silence that follows from it can nurture our ability to be receptive to and present in human relations and in resonance with the meaning-giving life phenomena that surround us.

Language around trauma, anxiety, and burnout is pervasive in our current climate, where it seems like we need superhuman powers just to make it through the day. This book argues that the expectations and living conditions of our society are uniquely destabilizing, producing a “techno-precarious performance self” that markets itself as a product, gets addicted to almost anything, and drives itself to exhaustion. Navigating our way out of this zero-sum game, Ross Channing Reed maintains, will require nothing less than an exploration of our beliefs, values, goals, and the very meanings we attach to life itself. The dismantling of “techno-precarious performance society,” a society rooted in systemic precarity and philosophical nihilism, is absolutely necessary to effectively address our epidemic of trauma and addiction.

Philosophy in Philosophical Counseling: Unasked Questions, Open Answers offers a base for criticizing approaches to philosophical counseling that fail to be philosophical or relevant to the counselees' concerns. It analyses the impact of tacit, unexamined, philosophical assumptions and examines their influence on the search for solutions, while explaining how such assumptions may obstruct that search. Ora Gruengard argues that conversations in which the participants disagree with each other are the adequate context for calling tacit assumptions into question and exploring alternatives. Her research shows how philosophical assumptions change in informal conversations and illuminates their important role in education, religious guidance, and psychological treatments. Nevertheless, philosophical issues are best dealt with in explicit philosophical dialogues in which counselees are respected as philosophical partners who are encouraged to think critically and make their own judgments. This book addresses counselors' dilemmas by presenting examples of hypothetical counseling conversations and true sessions with real people. Gruengard also discusses what kind of philosophical knowledge and expertise is necessary for doing the job adequately.

Gerd B. Achenbach’s Philosophical Praxis: Origin, Relations, and Legacy, translated by Michael Picard, offers unique insights into the compelling origin and development of what has been called a renaissance of philosophy: a storied trove of thought steeped in tradition, character, and experience, and redeployed in the service of understanding the individual life. Throughout this book, the author explores Philosophical Praxis not only through the tumultuous history of philosophy, but also through psychology, religion, literature, and more. Achenbach’s tone is subtle, humorous, and constantly surprising, demonstrating his intimacy with an expansive spirit of life and leaving behind the narrowness of academic disciplines. As the founder of Philosophical Praxis, Achenbach dissects the challenges faced in current philosophy and psychology and, in doing so, surpasses academic philosophy to reveal the possibility of a new profession for philosophical practitioners seeking to resist the seductions of theory, methods, or solutions, and personify the seriousness of being human.