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.
Acknowledgements Introduction: Introducing philosophical health: the healing dimension of making-sense, Luis de Miranda (University of Turku, Finland) Part I: The Self 1. Living for Real, not Counterfeit: ‘Self-honesty’ as a Foundation for Philosophical health, Eugenia I. Gorlin (University of Texas, USA) 2. Existential-Phenomenological Approaches in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy to the Idea of Philosophical Health, Lehel Balogh (Hokkaido University, Japan) 3. Mechanisms, Organisms and Persons: Philosophical Health and Person-centred Care, Michael Loughlin (University of West London, UK) 4. State of Equanimity (Samata) as Philosophical Health: A Perspective from the Bhagavad-Gita, Balaganapathi Devarakonda (University of Delhi, India) 5. Logical Constructivism in Philosophical Health, Elliot D. Cohen (National Philosophical Counseling Association, USA) Part II: The Others 6. The virtue of vulnerability: Merleau-Ponty and Minuchin on the Boundaries of Personal Identity, Laura McMahon (Eastern Michigan University, USA) 7. Philosophical Health, Non-violent Just Communication, and Epistemic Justice, Raja Rosenhagen (Ashoka University, India) 8. Philosophical Health, Meaning, and the Role of the Other: a Hermeneutic Approach, Dennis Schutijser (Pontifical Catholic University, Ecuador) 9. Ubuntu: An Afro-communitarian Approach to Philosophical Counselling and Health, Richard Sivil (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) 10. What is it like to Counsel like a Philosopher? A Phenomenological Reading of Philosophical Health, Andrei Simionescu-Panait (Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania) 11. Artificial Intelligence and Philosophical Health: From Analytics to Crealectics, Luis de Miranda (University of Turku, Finland) Part III: The World 12. Professionalisation and Philosophical Ill-health: Maladies and Counsels, Matthew Sharpe (Deakin University, Australia) and Eli Kramer (University Wroclaw, Poland) 13. Philosophical Health and the Transformative Power of Storytelling, Abdullah Basaran (Hitit University, Turkey) 14. Decolonization as Philosophical Health, Brendan Moran (University of Calgary, Canada) 15. Philosophical Health in Entangled Cosmopolitan Posthumanism, Jacob Vangeest (Western University, Canada) 16. East Asian Somatic Philosophies as Guides to a Philosophically Healthy Life, Lehel Balogh (Hokkaido University, Japan) 17. Philosophical Health, Crealectics and the Sense of the Possible, Luis de Miranda (University of Turku, Finland) Methodological epilogue Sense-making interviews looking at elements of philosophical health (SMILE_PH), Luis de Miranda (University of Turku, Finland)
Luis de Miranda, PhD, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Philosophy Department of the University of Turku, Finland, and a Fellow of the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS). A philosophical counsellor for individuals and institutions or corporations, he is also an Affiliated Research Fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, and the founder of the Philosophical Health International network.
Reviews for Philosophical Health: Thinking as a Way of Healing
Philosophy’s foundational mission was to provide guidance about how to live flourishing lives, and ancient philosophers even conceived their craft as providing medicine for the soul. Long neglected, that ancient art is currently being revived and this rich volume of essay shows its great potential and promise. * Darrin M. McMahon, Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor of History, Dartmouth College, USA * These essays are uniformly well-written and well-researched—and beyond that, perceptive about the human condition and how it can be improved. The engaged reader not only learns much about the developing field of philosophical health but begins to practice it, gathering insights from world philosophies that support one's ambitions for a fulfilled life * Drew Leder, Professor of Philosophy and author of The Healing Body, Loyola University Maryland, USA *
