From the series ‘60/60 the best of SPCh’ (51) [60 most interesting publications from 60 years of SPCh]
2026-01-09
Piotr Leśniak: Philosophy here and now. The ontology of process as the basis for philosophical coaching [Studia Philosophiae Christianae 54(2018)3, pp. 111-147].
DESCRIPTION: This article presents an outline of the ontological foundations of philosophical coaching—a new practical discipline. It develops the idea of understanding philosophy as a spiritual exercise—a coaching model of practicing philosophy. The second paragraph of the text presents Plato's ontology from the perspective of process philosophy. Seen from this perspective, Plato's ontology is a kind of metaphysics of experience – the being called “true” by Plato is not the reality of abstracts, but what we experience in moments when we recognize the meaning of specific life situations in the perspective of Good. Plato's philosophy turns out to be a kind of philosophical logotherapy – a spiritual practice of freeing the mind by turning it away from pathological pseudo-meanings towards Meaning. Adopting this perspective means recognizing the meditative experience as a point of reference for philosophical reflection. It also means directing attention toward inner experience, including the sensations flowing from the body as an essential component of that experience. As a concrete example of ancient philosophical coaching, the text describes the Stoic practice of “marking the present.” To illustrate the idea of contemporary philosophical coaching, the exercise “My Here and Now” is described – one of the tools developed for individual coaching practice. It is based on the assumptions of the ontology of experience outlined earlier. "Why, in this age of cognitive science and scientific psychology, is the discovery of classical ‘archaic’ ways of practicing philosophy so inspiring? Why, despite our appreciation for analytical methods in philosophy, do we still need synthetic visions that do justice to the totality of human experience? Why is the practice of philosophy as a spiritual exercise not an entry into an area reserved exclusively for religious practices, but on the contrary, allows us to deepen and discover their universal significance? Why does the idea of philosophical coaching presented here seem closer to the philosophical practice of Saints Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria than to the spiritual masters of the New Age? These questions inspired this text and motivate further exploration. We live in an era of ‘uprooting’ from spiritual traditions, an era of ‘mechanization’ of ways of being and trivialization of social relations. In my opinion, searching for a remedy for these processes ‘at the sources’ of European culture in classical philosophical practice is a challenge worth undertaking" (p. 145).
Table of contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Preconsciousness, consciousness, and superconsciousness. Ontological foundations of Platonic psychotherapy. 3. Towards a philosophy of the here and now. Popper's three worlds in a process-oriented approach. 4. Stoic philosophy of the “here and now.” 5. “My here and now.” 6. Competencies of a philosophical coach. 7. Conclusion.
This website uses cookies for proper operation, in order to use the portal fully you must accept cookies.
English
Język Polski