Philosophical Practice in the Contemporary World

Abstract

In traditional academic sense practical philosophy is the combination of those philosophical disciplines which study the practical manifestations of human life, such as ethics and political philosophy. So “practice” in this context is not so much the way of doing philosophy, but rather its object of interest. Thus different subject-specific and applied philosophies are fre­quently referenced as areas of practical philosophy, though might as well develop in purely academic context. However, there exists another increasingly visible interpretation of practical philosophy, often also referred to as philosophical practice, which involves the use of philo­sophical tools and insights for philosophical work outside of academia. The best established forms of philosophical practice are individual philosophical counselling/consultancy, philoso­phy for children, community philosophy/philosophical cafe, philosophy for business. The core (but not strict) common denominator for all these formats is the joint philosophical work of a professional philosopher with non-philosophers. This work may be perceived of intrinsic value or goal-oriented, including making sense of oneself and the world, personal development, de­veloping thinking and metacognitive skills, solving particular conceptually rich problems, in­cluding ethical dilemmas. These formats have been developed and formalised to differing ex­tent in different countries and regions. The goal of the present paper is to introduce the Rus­sian-speaking reader to philosophical practice as a contemporary manifestation of practical philosophy and give a short analytical overview of its key formats in the contemporary world, incl. in Russia.