There are a few common questions I am asked by those who hear that I offer philosophical counseling and want to learn more about it. “What Is Philosophical Counseling?” is one, as is “How is Philosophical Counseling Different from Psychotherapy?” Another important question is “What’s Philosophical About Philosophical Counseling?” Clients or counselors from other disciplines want to know how philosophical counseling is unique and, perhaps, what makes a philosopher uniquely suited to offer it.
Philosophical counseling is a modern continuation of the ancient Socratic quest to lead an “examined life,” to question popular beliefs, to seek out truths, and to apply new wisdom to our concrete lives. There are at least three things that immediately come to mind that make this form of counseling “philosophical,” all or some of which we might do in a given session.
1. Identifying and critically examining assumptions and lines of thinking
The first thing one might notice that is philosophical about philosophical counseling is that the kind of dialogical activity we engage in is a philosophical one. As the client talks through the problems they are dealing with, we pause to identify the assumptions or implicit truth claims that are at work in the client’s thinking. This allows us to bring them forward out of the background, where they operate without much thought, and state them clearly so we can begin to ask about their truth and their effects. Are they always true or just sometimes true? Are they partly true or partly false? Are they true from one perspective and not from another? Are they overly simplistic? How did they arise? Who do they serve? Are they helping or hurting us? We can compare operating truth claims with alternatives, try on other perspectives, and see if we can broaden and deepen our thinking. At times, we may need to work on making our thinking flexible in areas where it has become problematically rigid.
We can also examine the lines of thinking that proceed from our assumptions, i.e., the sorts of “arguments” we tell ourselves, and consider whether our conclusions logically follow from our premises, whether there is good evidence to back up our beliefs, and whether we are harboring certain biases or falling into logical fallacies that cause us problems. We can work on clarity and consistency in our thinking, but we can also discover where a plurality of perspectives is valuable and important to keep ready at hand. Sometimes, there are tensions or paradoxes that can’t easily be resolved, and we have to learn how to hold multiple thoughts simultaneously and see the truth in several, even divergent, points of view.
This kind of conversation, which examines life and our ideas about it for the purpose of a better (wiser, more excellent, more just life), is quintessentially philosophical, stemming from the Socratic dialogue. It’s collaborative and involves a joint quest for wisdom. It is not the kind of conversation where one person tries to out-argue the other or convince them that they are right (that kind of conversation was thought to be “sophistic” rather than “philosophical” by the ancient Greeks). And it’s not a confessional kind of conversation, where one person spills all their feelings while another listens silently, sympathizing or judging. It’s not a kind of conversation where one person psychoanalyzes the other from a distance, diagnosing them or aiming to “know” them better than they know themselves. And, it’s not a kind of conversation where one person acts as “the authority” professing or preaching to the other who laboriously takes notes. (In fact, these types of “conversation” tend to be closer to monologue than dialogue.) A collaborative examination of life — with the goal of deeper understanding, the creative development of new insights, frameworks, and worldviews, and their practical application for everyday life — is key to a philosophical dialogue… and the conversation is likely to have a transforming effect on both participants.
2. Asking philosophical questions
When we run into a paradox, or even just perplexity about a problem, and we need more investigation, it’s helpful to ask philosophical questions. Philosophical questions are often the “big questions” of life — those that don’t have an easy answer and have been asked throughout the ages: What is love, really? What makes life meaningful? What makes work good work? How should other human beings be treated? What can I and can’t I control? How can one create freedom in structures of oppression? What should I strive for? Who am I and who should I be? Philosophical questions get at the central difficulties of the human condition, which include Issues of meaning and purpose, values and ethics, core beliefs and judgments, identity and change, freedom and authenticity, alienation and injustice.
Philosophical questions open up traditional beliefs and pop culture opinions, turning them into things we can wonder about and see (perhaps for the first time) as strange and in need of further unpacking and examination.
It is often typical in non-philosophical conversations that the majority-accepted values, aspirations, beliefs, social divisions, and power structures are considered to be “right,” as if there were some natural order of things that made them so. Philosophical questions call all of that into question… and so can be seen as rather subversive or threatening to mainstream culture. Philosophical questions harbor within them the possibility of change. That is likely why there are not many spaces in which philosophical questions are asked. All the more reason to find a place in which to ask them!
3. Drawing on philosophical wisdom traditions for inspiration
There are many philosophical wisdom traditions that have aimed to answer the perennial questions of the ages about what it means to be a human being, how we should treat others, how we can limit suffering, how we can gain knowledge, how we can understand our connection to non-human beings, how we can create a world in which we might thrive, and what that “thriving” might look like. In a given session, philosophical counselors may draw on their studies of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir, Foucault, and many more. Each philosophical counselor is likely to have their “specialty” philosophers that they find most useful, and some may focus strictly on particular wisdom traditions, like Buddhism or Taoism. Sometimes, the philosophical counselor and client may read sections from philosophical texts in advance of the session and talk about them and how they are relevant to the client’s life problems.
Philosophical counselors have advanced degrees in philosophy and have studied different branches of philosophy in-depth, such as critical thinking and logic, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, existentialism, hermeneutics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and others. The client doesn’t need a background or specialty in these philosophies to get involved in philosophical dialogue. The philosophical counselor can introduce relevant ideas from the history of philosophy that they think might be helpful for the clients’ problems. Client and counselor can talk about them in an accessible way to enrich and bring inspiration to their discussion. Content from both the client’s and counselors’ experiences and informal philosophies of life can also be helpful and relevant for the discussion.
Final Thoughts…
So, there are philosophical activities, philosophical questions and topics, and the insights of the great philosophers all involved in philosophical counseling, making it a unique sort of dialogue and approach to life problems. There is also a unique relationship between philosophical counselor and client, which is different from that of doctor and patient, teacher and student, or pastor and congregation. It is a collaborative partnership, a philosophical friendship, joined by the common quest for wisdom and openness to learn from each other in their joint inquiry.
Though other kinds of counseling (for instance, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, or existential-humanistic therapy, which psychotherapists may engage in) may pull from philosophical activities or traditions and appropriate them into their psychological approaches, there is still a whole range of tools that the discipline of philosophy has to offer — most notably, tools for investigations of ethics and social power —as well as a unique relationship that are available in philosophical counseling.
