Philosophy Now Forum

I have to ask since there are so few threads.

Internet research shows this has caught on in the 1980s (a Wiki article follows). How relevant this is to our daily lives can be debated. Anyways here's the article:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_counseling

PhilX

I emphatically said no. viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10087

Only for brain-washing and main-streaming. Only philosophers with an optimistic slant will practice this, and will bully their patients by rejecting their pessimism out of hand... Much like their psychology counterparts reject depressive realism, and assume malady, which must be corrected.

What else is philosophy about if not to illuminate the human condition? Otherwise it's just a load of sitting around going "Wwwhhhhyyyy!" Seems to me that any set of ideas worth their salt have to be about educating, promoting human values like freedom, compassion and lessening suffering. I think Scientific ideas have worked so well because they are grounded in something (relatively) tangible. For me, this has to be the case with my individual philosophical journey or it's just plain "how many angels can fit on the head of a pin" useless.

Philosophical counseling can either be helpful or harmful depending upon whether or not the philosophy employed is "true" or not. In other words, if the philosophy corresponds with actual reality, then it will have much more chance of being helpful, and if it does not correspond with reality then it will have little chance of being helpful.

The problem here, of course, is that different people will often have very different and even contradictory philosophies, while each believes that their own philosophy is correct. I find it very unfortunate that philosophy is often taught as though it were merely a game played with words, and diverse and contradictory philosophies all taught on rather equal footing, as though they all had equal truth value, rather than something intended to really get down to fundamental truths of reality.

Imagine if a course in chemistry were taught the way philosophy is. Instead of the professor just mentioning the historical roots of chemistry in alchemy, mysticism, and superstition and then quickly moving on to actual reality-based chemistry, the course would spend and enormous time on all sorts of spells, potions, mystical and superstitious beliefs and so on, giving such things equal footing with reality-based chemistry.

Ayn Rand's Objectivism was an attempt to move away from "philosophical alchemy," so to speak, and into a more reality-based endeavor, but it certainly has faults of its own. Something which really adheres to reality at every level such as Scionics Philosophy would fit the bill, but it would also require not only that the "philosophical counselor" be well-versed in the philosophy itself, and also to be adept at dealing with people in a counseling setting.

This seems quite a valuable service:

a philosophical practitioner helps clients to clarify, articulate, explore and comprehend philosophical aspects of their belief systems or world views....Clients may consult philosophical practitioners for help in exploring philosophical problems related to such matters as mid-life crises, career changes, stress, emotions, assertiveness, physical illness, death and dying, aging, meaning of life, and morality.

Setarcos wrote:Ayn Rand's Objectivism was an attempt to move away from "philosophical alchemy," so to speak, and into a more reality-based endeavor, but it certainly has faults of its own. Something which really adheres to reality at every level such as Scionics Philosophy would fit the bill, but it would also require not only that the "philosophical counselor" be well-versed in the philosophy itself, and also to be adept at dealing with people in a counseling setting.

If I recall correctly, Rand said that she described herself as a romantic because she wrote stories set in another place, and another time. She put people as she knew them into these romantic settings. She considered capitalism to be an ideal. She said that she wrote about heroes.

hey man im not even real and i feel a lot happier knowing that. Philosophy counseling made all the difference.

Philosophy Explorer wrote:I have to ask since there are so few threads.

Internet research shows this has caught on in the 1980s (a Wiki article follows). How relevant this is to our daily lives can be debated. Anyways here's the article:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_counseling

PhilX

Internet is 50% porn, 30% cats, 10% facebook and all that bullsht. And 10% others.FOrums? They should be eliminated.