History of Philosophical Practice by Maria Tillmanns

THE EARLY DAYS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICE MOVEMENT

An excerpt from chapter one of my dissertation:
Philosophical Counseling and Teaching: “Holding the Tension” in a Dualistic World
(May 1998)

by Maria Tillmanns

The philosophical practice movement started during the early nineteen eighties in Europe as well as in the United States. It seems to be a perfect example of a Zeitgeist phenomenon. The time was ripe, and a number of people with a strong interest in philosophy "suddenly" had the brain wave, why not apply philosophy to everyday life? Why not apply it to the " the malady of the quotidian . . . ?"¹ Some present-day philosophical practitioners recounted how they wanted to study philosophy precisely for its merits with respect to lived life itself and how disappointed they were to find out that academic philosophy seemed to have stripped philosophy of its application to lived reality. Academic philosophy seemed to be just that, academic. Where did the philosophy of Socrates go, the philosophy of the αγορα (agora),² the marketplace? The idea behind the philosophical practice movement was to take philosophy out of the ivory tower and let her live in the world of the everyday.

The founder of the philosophical practice movement is Gerd B. Achenbach. There have been philosophers, such as John van Veen from Holland, who have worked completely independently of Achenbach and the movement in philosophical practice. I met van Veen through the Open Filosofische Hogeschool, the College for Philosophy, which originated in the sixties. Professors in philosophy as well as in the social sciences from Holland and Belgium taught at the Open Filosofische Hogeschool. My sponsor, Dr. Ad D. Fokker, Assistant Professor Emeritus in Astronomy at the University of Utrecht, Holland, was Associate Director of the College for approximately 10 years.

John van Veen opened his practice as philosopher, counseling for existential and psychological problems, in 1967. In 1973 he started the Center of Philosophy for the Education of Self and Parenthood. The objective was to increase awareness among parents with respect to their own life experience in terms of parenting. Van Veen built his philosophy on the notion of pneumatologische hermeneutiek, pneumatological hermeneutics, the art of listening philosophically to one's life text through pneumatological dialogue. For van Veen pneumatological refers to increasing awareness through Spinoza's notion of "amor intellectualis," -thought-ful love. Pneumatological dialogue is the process of seeking wisdom through dialogue from thought-ful love or care-ful thinking towards oneself and others. Van Veen's concentration on the inner dialogue bears close resemblance to Bakhtin's notion of the dialogical, which Bakhtin sees being played out in Dostoevsky's novels. John van Veen is quick to add that whereas German hermeneutics originates in German Lutheran theology, which is focused on understanding fixed texts, essentially Bible texts through the experiencing subject, a different kind of hermeneutics developed in Holland. Oldewelt's notion of hermeneutics (though he did not use this term himself) came out of the Socratic tradition. The fundamental difference between the German and Dutch traditions is that Dilthey's hermeneutics is steeped in the notion of alienation, whereas the Dutch tradition originates in the notion of a "becoming familiar"³ with one's own and each other's life text through pneumatological dialogue. The Dutch tradition is based on the Socratic and Stoic traditions. These traditions developed into a hermeneutics which stresses the importance of inner dialogue which goes beyond the experiencing subject. It includes the other through the "amor intellectualis". The Dutch tradition has much more in common with the Judaic tradition and its notion of trust than with the German tradition, which is based on the notion of alienation.

Achenbach, however, is the founder of philosophical practice as a movement.⁴ His ideas soon found recognition with a group of philosophy students at the University of Amsterdam. As a group they studied Achenbach and conducted workshops in practicing philosophy. Adriaan Hoogendijk was one of these students. He later became the Dutch founder of philosophical practice. He opened his practice in 1987. In 1981 Achenbach had started his private practice in Bergish Gladbach near Cologne, Germany. He founded the Gesellschaft für Philosophische Praxis (the Association for Philosophical Practice) in 1982. In 1987, the first edition of Agora, the journal of the association, was published. The journal changed its name and is now called Zeitschrift für Philosophische Praxis (Journal of Philosophical Practice). The association consists of members from countries from all over the world, such as Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Norway, Italy, Canada, Israel, and South Africa. The Dutch association, Vereniging voor Filosofische Praktijk (the Association for Philosophical Practice) was founded in 1989. The journal, Filosofische Praktijk (Philosophical Practice) first appeared in 1987, two years before the association was established. In 1998, Holland counted 25 practicing philosophical counselors. In 1988, Hotel de Filosoof (Hotel The Philosopher), in Amsterdam became the headquarters for the Dutch philosophical practice movement. The Dutch association met there on a monthly basis, but the hotel also organized symposia and other events which had to do with philosophy and its applications to everyday life.

My interest in doing some kind of philosophical practice originated while I was still a doctoral student in the US. I was not aware of the movement in Europe or elsewhere at this time. In 1986, a legal document was signed by Dr. D. B. Giddon and me, which allowed me the use of office space and secretarial services at Health Programs International, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. I called myself an interpersonal communication consultant for business, family, or internationally related concerns. I was operating as an independent consultant entirely. It was not until I went to Europe that I learned about Hoogendijk and the philosophical practice movement in Holland.

After I had met Hoogendijk, he and I decided to have monthly practice sessions. These sessions lasted for half a year, after which he encouraged me to open my own philosophical practice, which I did in November of 1989 in Hilversum, Holland. An article appeared in the regional newspaper (De Gooi- en Eemlander) when I had just opened my private practice in this new field. As a result of this article, I received a number of calls from national and local broadcasting agencies for radio interviews.

After I became a board member of the Dutch association, I was once asked to participate in its annual open house for philosophical practice at Hotel The Philosopher. At that time I not only had my own private practice in Hilversum, but also conducted courses and workshops in philosophizing at various schools and at the Hilversum community center. For the open house, I invited all my students from the community center to come, and we gave a presentation of our philosophy class. Our session at the open house was packed and was considered a real success. The press was also present, and a wonderful article appeared in the same regional newspaper (De Gooi - en Eemlander) in 1991.

Hoogendijk, the Dutch founder, received a lot of media attention, not only from within Holland itself, but also from England, France, and the US. Hotel De Filosoof also appeared in the news frequently. In Canada, Petra von Morstein founded the Apeiron Society for the Practice of Philosophy (ASPP), a nonacademic public forum for the exploration of philosophical ideas and methods in the context of actual life issues, in 1987. Von Morstein also organized a conference on Philosophy in Practice at Simon Fraser University, in 1995, in Vancouver, Canada. I was invited as one of the four guest speakers. Steven Segal and Barbara Norman founded The Institute for the Art of Thinking, in South Africa. In Israel, Shlomit Schuster founded the Center Sophon in 1989 and Ran Lahav established the Organization for the Advancement of Philosophical Counseling. In France, there was an organization called Le Cabinet de Philosophie. In the US, the American Society for Philosophy, Counseling and Psychotherapy (ASPCP) was interested in working towards professionalizing philosophical practice in this country. The ASPCP was originally founded in order to encourage the philosophical examination of the theory and practice of psychotherapy and the promotion of philosophical practice in North America. The founders were Paul Sharkey and Elliot Cohen. Both served as president of the ASPCP. I became president in 1996. Also in 1996, I became one of the society's mentors. Sharkey started practicing philosophical counseling in 1974. In 1982 he edited a book: Philosophy, Religion and Psychotherapy, as a result of which he became aware of a number of people throughout the US who were engaging in various types of "philosophical practice." The ASPCP grew out of meetings sponsored by the Conference of Philosophical Societies at the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in the mid-eighties. Sharkey and Cohen had no knowledge of similar activities in Europe until the early nineties. ASPCP has now become the National Philosophical Counseling Association (NPCA) and is headed by Elliot Cohen. The first occasion for the convergence resulted from the first book in English on philosophical practice, Essays on Philosophical Counseling, co-edited by Ran Lahav and me, which came out in 1995. Other books published in the field were Achenbach’s two books in German, Philosophische Praxis Band I, in 1987, and Philosophische Praxis Band II, in 1985. Hoogendijk published two books in Dutch, Spreekuur Bij Een Filosoof (The Philosopher Gives Consultations) which appeared in 1988, and Filosofie Voor Managers (Philosophy for Managers) in 1992. Miriam van Reijen, also from Holland, published Filosofie en de Hulpverlening I (Philosophy and Social Work I) in 1984 (first edition) and Filosofie en de Hulpverlening II, in 1987 (first edition); later she published Filosoferen over Emoties, (Philosophizing about Emotions) in 1995.

The second occasion which brought the American and European societies together was the First International Conference on Philosophical Practice at the University of British Columbia in 1994, organized by Ran Lahav and Louis Marinoff. The Second International Conference on Philosophical Practice was held at the Internationale School Voor Wijsbegeerte (the International School for Philosophy) in Leusden, Holland in 1996. The Third International Conference on Philosophical Practice was held in the summer of 1997 in New York City through the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The Fourth International Conference on Philosophical Practice will be held in Cologne, Germany, in August of 1998.

It is interesting to note that the philosophical practice movement in Europe was initiated by scholars and students of philosophy, whereas the movement in the US was started by professional psychotherapists, counselors, and psychiatrists with a strong interest in philosophy, some of whom had even acquired an additional degree in philosophy. They were using philosophy in their practice. Many of the present philosophical practitioners in Holland also came from an artistic and creative background, and have a degree in Philosophy. In contrast to their American counterparts, they were not already licensed practitioners in psychotherapy or other related field. This may also explain the sometimes quite different orientation towards philosophical practice between the Americans and the Europeans. A number of the philosophical practitioners in the US are interested in developing licensure in philosophical practice. My guess is that many who desire this are approaching philosophical practice from the medical model, which operates on the basis of malpractice insurance, thirdparty payments, etc. The Europeans who have their own private practice operate without a license. I had my own private practice for four years and worked without a license myself. Many Europeans and Americans, however, are agreed that there needs to be some kind of agency, which ensures the quality control of the profession. Both the American and European societies for philosophical practice required that any prospective student of philosophical practice have a university degree in philosophy. Furthermore, the societies issue guidelines for training and certification in philosophical practice.