The HUN-REN Institute of Philosophy cordially invites everybody to the upcoming talk by Lou Marinoff (professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York) entitled Philosophical Practice: An Introduction and Overview.

The talk will be given in English.

Time: 6 June 2024, Thursday, 2PM

Venue: Institute of Philosophy, 1097, Budapest, Tóth Kálmán Street 4. Floor 7, Room 16.

You can find the even on Facebook via this link.

Abstract:

This lecture introduces philosophical practice to an academic audience assumed to have little or no familiarity with it. The first part revisits origins of the contemporary movement, and outlines some of the scientific and cultural factors that abetted the emergence of a community of philosophical practitioners some thirty years ago. These factors include pathologization of ordinary human problems and colonization of mental health by “big pharma”, resulting in widespread spurious diagnoses and mass-drugging of populations of all ages. More generally, unwholesome habits of mind and body have enabled literal epidemics of culturally-induced illnesses. Postmodern deconstructions of traditional world-views, in tandem with politicizations of race, class and gender, have eroded formal education, recalibrating citizens’ moral compasses with ideology rather than philosophy. The predictable result is a cornucopia of conflicts. The second part characterizes four modes of philosophical practice, positioning them as educational activities: individual counseling, group facilitation, organizational consulting, and continuing studies. The third part characterizes some of the client-side issues regularly encountered by philosophical counselors. These include problems of identity, morality, meaning, purpose, value, lifestyle and change. The fourth part reviews some empirically efficacious theories and methods utilized in philosophical counseling. The fifth part summarizes three significant developments originating from East Asian (i.e. Chinese, Korean and Japanese) conceptions and adaptations of philosophical practice: (i) the coalition that constitutes the broader field of Humanities Therapy; (ii) the Mahayana Buddhist model of awakening the client’s “inner philosopher”; and (iii) the challenges of reconceiving human identity in technologically-driven societies. The sixth part sounds an alarm over impoverishments of cognition and manipulations of consciousness produced by the supersession of the digital revolution over the written tradition, which might be termed “Plato’s Cave 2.0”. The talk concludes with a question-and-answer exchange with the audience.