Gemeinsam
Philosophieren
An Interview of the Constance
SinnPraxis by Willi Fillinger, Philosophische Praxis kopfvoran in Zürich for
the AGORA of Philosophical Practitioners
Hello Christine! Hello Mike!
together:
Hello Willi!
Willi: You are running SinnPraxis , - at the Lake of Constance - together as philosophical practitioners. How does that work?
Willi: You are running SinnPraxis , - at the Lake of Constance - together as philosophical practitioners. How does that work?
Christine: Well,
I think, we are a good match. We do not advocate a "separation" between our philosophical practice and practicing
philosophy at Uni. We are both active in
different positions at Constance University. I am doing my PhD, Mike is
lecturing - and we are trying to bring results into our activities as
philosophical practitioners.
Mike: Topics of our university philosophy are also relevant for our philosophical practice. To give you an example: Christine has dealt in detail with the concept NATURE in her Master`s thesis – in the attempt to find a point of departure for “Joining Philosophizing with Kids”. And she does that under the perspective OF SAVING THE WORLD: our world that enables us to live as human beings and do philosophy, take responsibility (Hans Jonas). If we carry on in the present manner, this might not be the case for long … Willi: AND you are doing philosophy mainly within the university - or: do you also offer philo for the world outside?
Christine: I will write my thesis for the university. But SinnPraxis organizes a reading circle where we discuss (philosophical) texts. In these meetings outside uni we can also bring in central points of our philosophical work.
Mike: Topics of our university philosophy are also relevant for our philosophical practice. To give you an example: Christine has dealt in detail with the concept NATURE in her Master`s thesis – in the attempt to find a point of departure for “Joining Philosophizing with Kids”. And she does that under the perspective OF SAVING THE WORLD: our world that enables us to live as human beings and do philosophy, take responsibility (Hans Jonas). If we carry on in the present manner, this might not be the case for long … Willi: AND you are doing philosophy mainly within the university - or: do you also offer philo for the world outside?
Christine: I will write my thesis for the university. But SinnPraxis organizes a reading circle where we discuss (philosophical) texts. In these meetings outside uni we can also bring in central points of our philosophical work.
It helps a lot, when you speak to people that are not
professional philosophers and have different ways of “making sense” … This is
important especially if your aim is to deal with a topic relevant to all. And I
think SAVE THE WORLD , seeing to it that human life will truly be possible on
Earth in the future, is or ought to be relevant to all. Mike: And there have been attempts to save the world
before. One of them is connected with the name: Martin Heidegger, in his 1933
attempt "den Führer
führen" (to lead the leader
Hitler). The first lot of Heidegger´s black booklets, "Schwarze
Hefte" from the 30s have just been published. This was to some extend a
secret philosophy. It is only now (2014) that we are able to look into it. I
have done a seminar week with that topic at Constance University. And we will
deal with it in a Café Philo in Berne /Switzerland. I am looking forward to
that public discussion. Willi: What about philosophical counselling – how does it
differ from therapy, from psychotherapy? Do you offer counselling, Mike? Mike: Yes
I do counselling – in a very special field so far. (One often cannot make a
living from philosophy alone) I have
worked part time for 30 years in a rehabilitation clinic and was employed as a language philosopher in
the language & speech therapy department. This brought me into contact with
the Self Help movement. Here I proposed to do “Family Seminars”: language loss after stroke effects also for
people living with an aphasic person. In
such a long weekend I am taking part as a Philosophical Practitioner. There
comes a man and lets me know: "My problem is ... "
And then: "I won´t take much of your time". After a while it
was obvious that he was deeply moved. He wept. Someone who adheres to such a
form of psychotherapy, could have described us as beginning a "systemic
therapy or counselling". I told him
my first impression: "... we will not be able to solve your problem
here and now! But there is a book I can suggest: Yalom, The Schopenhauer Cure.
A Novel." Willi: Is it possible to do therapy with
Schopenhauer? Mike: Indeed! Schopenhauer was
probably the first one of the well known Philosophers of German tongue, whose
texts and thoughts had an effect in the direction of philosophical practice ....
Willi: How
did that work in this instance? Mike: Oskar
had texts written by Yalom at home
already and he got this Schopenhauer CURE. He knew that Yalom is a brilliant
writer, well readable. And he started to link his life - with problems on the level of the couple
connected with property issues too – to passages in the text, and he mailed
that to me. We were in „virtual contact“ for some months. In the end he wrote
to me that he finally managed to solve the problematic with the help of writing
mails to the philosopher on the other end of the communication line and
continually reading in that book with philosophical content. That book is
written by a non-philosopher. The author's profession is Psychiatry. No clear cut
between „existential therapy“
and practising philosophy here. Willi: This is your example of
a bibliotherapy, … Mike: Yalom
refers to the philosopher Bryan Magee who coined the term. Willi:
Can we generalize this? Elaborate how you
act as philosophical practitoners! Christine:
I was informed about this "Schopenhauer bibliotherapy" in a
copy of the emails. Schopenhauer and Yalom
were also on our agenda of a Philosophical Week at the Adriatic Sea /
Istria. At that event you could realise, that Schopenhauer and in parallel the Schopenhauer CURE are
inspiring. The CURE is fictional literature.
The initially „negative hero“,
has a nasty habit and can´t get
free from it in a time and money consuming psychotherapy. Then he studies
philosophy, „cures“ himself inspired by Schopenhauer and wants to become a
professional 'philosophical counselor' (in the States). In our SinnPraxis the
point of departure is a uni seminar -
and we transport contents to ordinary people. In the Istrian week you could witness how people begin to
take their time to grasp philosophy. Although we had only scheduled a daily
"working time" of 2 to 3
hours one could see that doing
philosophy also happened in our free
time („Freizeit“). I therefore think that having a closer look at philosophy
is of equal importance as the
„transportation“ into everyday life („ die Lebenswelt “), that is our world in
our time.
Mike:
Thank you, Christine! You have outlined
within the frame of philosophical practice a counterpart to Yalom's group psychotherapy. Acting as a
philosophical practitioner I had spent just about 4 hours a day with the participants, and some
kept talking to one another well into the night. There was one couple that came
to us with „Beziehungsstress“ (stress in their relationship) and used the
atmosphere pregnant with understanding to cheer up and socialize. We were a
dozen. That seems to me a good number. Willi:
Christine, in your understanding of
philosophical practising doing philosophy
with kids plays an essential part. Obviously your own experience … Christine:
I have dealt with the topic in my studies
and I have a daughter of 20. Looking
back I asked myself: have I brought her up inspired by philosophy? Have I
educated (gebildet) myself in practicing philosophy during that process as
well?
I have, for instance, not simply given
answers to children´s questions, but have passed on the answering-role (Eva Zoller):
„How do you think one could answer to that question?“ (in variations). I
believe it is important not to silence kids by simply stating, passing on
doctrines. Mike: …
Socratic tradition! Finding a revival in this book of Michael Hampe, Die Lehren der Philosophie. Eine Kritik
(2014) >Philosophical Doctrines. A Critique<
See also: Confessions of a Philosopher by Bryan Magee,
N.Y. (Modern Library) 1999
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