Methods determine the road

METHODS IN PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICE - string initiated by Leon De Haas

1. No Method

Leon de Haas 12 January 2015

Gert Achenbach’s dictum, “Philosophical Practice does not have a method”, has its friends and its enemies. I am a friend. It is my thesis, that, since Husserl’s and Wittgenstein’s...

2. What is ‘method’?

Leon de Haas 28 January 2015

By ‘method’ I understand a fixed way to realize a pre-conceived effect. By example, to manufacture a car, you can do it with robots, or manually. Or to reach the top of a mountain,...

3. Using methods without justifying ourselves

Detlef Staude 09 February 2015

The main method of philosophy aims to conceptualize the world so that we are able to grasp it. And we have quite a lot techniques to do so and follow different schools and paths in...

4. Methods determine the road

Leon de Haas 09 February 2015

Many of those who write about methods in philosophical practice refer to the ancient Greek 'methodos'. As the contraction of meta and ´odos indicates, it would just mean that we fo...

5. Questions about method invite us to justify our practice

Leon de Haas 16 February 2015

We can consider 'Method' as an answer to the question, “What is happening in a philosophical conversation? How do you do it?”

6. Not without a method

Silvia Schwarz 23 March 2015

The problem of the "methods in philosophical practice", raised by Leon De Haas is certainly a crucial issue. De Haas, in agreement with Achenbach, states that philosophical practic...

7. Methods in East and West

Silvia Schwarz 28 March 2015

I think that for the still young philosophical counselling it is important not only to define its nature and bring into focus its purposes, but also to clarify its methods and shar...

8. Methods, but not shared ones

Arto Tukiainen 09 April 2015

Philosophical counselors have methods such as questioning background assumptions, examining concepts, clarifying the counselee's thoughts, trying to see familiar situations in a ne...

9. Is there anything wrong with methods?

Ran Lahav 04 May 2015

Some philosophical practitioners are against methods. This might seem strange. After all, many important philosophers had methods: Aristotle's syllogistic method, Husserl's phenome...

Monday, 09 February 2015 19:00

Written by Leon de Haas

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Many of those who write about methods in philosophical practice refer to the ancient Greek 'methodos'. As the contraction of meta and ´odos indicates, it would just mean that we follow a specific road. We cannot deny that, metaphorically speaking, we follow a road in philosophy practice. So, that's not the issue.

The discussion about methods is about the question to what extent the philosophical practitioner is prescribing and determining the guest's own 'road'. Does the practitioner set a goal for the guest, and a determined route for the guest? If so, the guest has to follow the predetermined road.

Another possibility is, however, that there is no such predetermined road, but that the guest and the philosophical host set out for wandering in the guest's life stories, i.e. experiences. Together they find out the guest's way, explore what they stumble upon, reflect on the findings and on the trail that is coming about. Here, the road is a track of the guest's search, not the predetermined railway lines towards a preconceived solution. Here, the method is being invented while making one's way.

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Leon de Haas

I practice philosophy as a counselor and trainer in the Netherlands and Germany. I am a board member of the German professional organization of philosophical practitioners (BV-PP, daughter organization of the IGPP). I am currently doing research on the consequences of Wittgenstein's later philosophy for philosophical practice.