Philosophical Health: Thinking as a Way of Healing (Re-inventing Philosophy as a Way of Life)

Bringing together leading international and interdisciplinary scholars, this ground-breaking volume examines the theory and practice of philosophical health in contemporary contexts of care broadly understood, care for the self, care for the other, and care for the world. But what do we mean by philosophical health? Whilst this book does not seek to provide a normative definition, as it explores disparate perspectives and encourages pluralism in philosophical ways of life, one may envision philosophical health as a state of creative coherence between a person's or a group's way of thinking and their way of acting, such that the possibilities for a good life are increased, and the needs for flourishing satisfied. An idea central to philosophical health is the concept of 'possibility'. Without a sense of self-possibility and openness to the future, health loses meaning, and conversely, pathologies are defined by various kinds of impossibilities. As such, philosophical health reconsiders care as a process of cultivating or pruning the compossible in embodied, psychological, and social terms, of allowing things to re-generate, or in some cases to vanish. Drawing on the history of philosophy, phenomenology, new materialism, post-colonialism but also a wide range of contemporary approaches to philosophical practice, Philosophical Health sheds light on the understudied philosophical dimension of care and the healing dimension of philosophizing. Advocating philosophy as a lived practice, it uncovers the increasing relevance of philosophical health to contemporary debates on well-being, well-belonging, counselling, and development. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Dedication Tables Contributors Acknowledgements Introducing philosophical health: The healing dimension of making sense Wholesome care and philosophical health The self, the others and the world The future of philosophical health Part I: The Self Chapter 1: Living for real, not counterfeit: ‘Self-honesty’ as a foundation for philosophical health Defining and philosophically situating ‘self-honesty’ Making the case for self-honesty Forming a united front: Self-deception as a common challenge for psychology and philosophical health Conclusion: Techniques and practices for promoting self-honesty Chapter 2: Existential-phenomenological approaches in psychiatry and psychotherapy to the idea of philosophical health Introduction: The ideal of authenticity as an indicator of philosophical health From Logotherapy to Daseinsanalysis: Psychiatrists on authentic existence and philosophical health on the Old Continent Existential-phenomenological psychiatry in America: Rollo May and Irvin Yalom Conclusion: Focusing on the more positive and constructive aspects of life Chapter 3: Mechanisms, organisms and persons: Philosophical health and person-centred care Philosophical health and PCC: ‘Pragmatically attuned’ ideas Two concepts of PCC Chapter 4: State of equanimity (Samata) as philosophical health: A perspective from the Bhagavad-Gītā I Epistemology of health Unsettling the reductionist approach: Definition of WHO Philosophical counselling leading to philosophical health II Why is the self so important? Samata as a state and a perspective Coda Chapter 5: Logical constructivism in philosophical health Philosophical health and rationality Practical syllogisms and illocutionary acts Rational limits of reality construction: The Cardinal Fallacies The Cardinal Fallacies and their respective guiding virtues Philosophical reality constructs Modal concepts and anxiety The phenomenology of logical constructivism Conclusion Part II: The Others Chapter 6: The virtue of vulnerability: Merleau-Ponty and Minuchin on the boundaries of personal identity Merleau-Ponty and the phenomenology of vulnerability The virtue of vulnerability Minuchin and therapeutic transformation Therapy as phenomenology (and phenomenology as therapy) Chapter 7: Philosophical health, non-violent just communication, and epistemic justice Philosophical health Variegated coherence Intentional directedness at a trans-subjective good Further aspects of philosophical health Promoting philosophical health through non-violent just communication Five principles of philosophical health Mental heroism Deep orientation Critical creativity Deep listening The Creal Non-violent just communication Non-violent just communication and philosophical health Non-violent just communication and epistemic justice Non-violent just communication and hermeneutical virtue Non-violent just communication and testimonial sensibility Philosophical health and philosophical counselling Chapter 8: Philosophical health, meaning and the role of the other: A hermeneutic approach Meaning in life: Do we find it, or do we make it? Suffering as an indicator for philosophical health The dynamics of narrative identity Philosophical counselling: A hermeneutic proposal Philosophical health Conclusion Chapter 9: Ubuntu: An Afro-communitarian approach to philosophical counselling and health Ubuntu – a basic overview Is Ubuntu a philosophical way of life? Ubuntu and philosophical counselling Ubuntu and philosophical health Conclusion Chapter 10: What is it like to counsel like a philosopher? A phenomenological reading of philosophical health Introducing the philosophical consultation The health of possibilities Dare to listen (bracketing oneself) Lateral guidance (the phenomenological reduction) Observational empathy So, is philosophical health for everyone? Chapter 11: Artificial intelligence and philosophical health: From analytics to crealectics Introduction: Making sense of the forest of the real The pebbles in the forest: Analytic intelligence and AI Breadcrumbs in the forest: Dialectic intelligence The cottage at the heart of the forest of the real: Crealectic intelligence Conclusion: From analytics to crealectics Part III: The World Chapter 12: Professionalization and philosophical ill-health: Maladies and counsels ‘Professional (and) philosopher’: A tension in the qualification The five maladies of philosophical ill-health in professional philosophy Mental cowardice Shallowness The cult of the commentator Dismissive listening Dogmatic fatalism Concluding proposals: ‘Philosophers, heal thy selves’? Chapter 13: Philosophical health and the transformative power of storytelling Philosophical narratives How stories heal us Conclusion Chapter 14: Decolonization as philosophical health Introduction: Decolonization and philosophical health Intimacy of the ‘subject’ against its ‘history’ Unhealthy silence, healthy silence and philosophy Literature and philosophical health Justice, philosophical health and literary anonymity: you, I and the third person Chapter 15: Philosophical health in entangled cosmopolitan posthumanism Introduction: Considering an entangled cosmos From Aristotle to Kant: Extending eudynamia Entangled foundations of obligation Posthuman cosmopolitanism and possibilities in entangled philosophical health Conclusion Chapter 16: East Asian somatic philosophies as guides to a philosophically healthy life Introduction: The tradition of East Asian somatic philosophies Ki-energy, self-cultivation and a good life in Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism Conclusion: The staying power of ki-based philosophies to health Chapter 17: Philosophical health, crealectics and the sense of the possible Our intercreative and moving sense of the possible The cosmic dynamo of Creal-One The sense of the possible and the ecological self Philosophical health as (re)generativity Conclusion: Joy in extremis Methodological epilogue: Sense-making interviews looking at elements of philosophical health (SMILE_PH) Introduction: A new method to approach personal philosophies The phenomenology of sense-making interviews Sense-Making Interviews Looking at Elements of Philosophical Health (SMILE_PH) Question 1 – The bodily sense Question 2 – The sense of self Question 3 – The sense of belonging Question 4 – The sense of the possible Question 5 – The sense of purpose Question 6 – The philosophical sense Limitations of a rationalist approach to interviewing Conclusion: Developing the SMILE_PH methodology Index