Pour une philosophie en acte - part III - Why philosophize?

Why reflect on the practices of everyday life, if not because it's the only way to have a reflection of your own philosophy in action, so you can observe and transform it?

It is in the reflection of lived experience that meaning is constructed. Discourse on activity produces meaning, and meaning contributes to the elaboration of one's philosophy in action. It's the elaboration of shared meanings and the adjustment of the belief system that underpins the actor's theory-in-action.

Contrary to popular belief, the ultimate aim of martial arts such as aikido is not to be the strongest or to fight better than everyone else. As Master Ueshiba said about this ultimate martial art, aikido, an art of peace, it's about not having to fight, nipping conflict in the bud before the violence of combat escalates. The ultimate aim of practising an art of peace such as aikido is to develop the disciple's capacity for attention. A way of being present to the situation that conditions the ability to allow the right decision to be made, the right gesture, without having to waste time thinking about it. It's a practice of conscious attention that allows intuition to manifest itself.

The practice of philosophy is, for most of us, a way of alerting ourselves in time to be able to see the traps we set ourselves coming, and at least have time to brace ourselves before falling into them. The result is far less damage.

What purpose does the practice of philosophy serve?

Mainly to develop a discipline of attention. To know when to act and when not to act. To give yourself the best chance of doing the right thing.

Nurture empathy through curiosity about the experience of others. Influence with respect and integrity. Allow the other person space to exist in the relationship.

The practice of philosophy has this same purpose: to become a practice of questioning gestures that enable the right decision to be made in the moment of action, which conditions the right decision to act.

Praxisophy as a source of serenity

The project could be to become intelligent with oneself in order to be intelligent with others.

Living intelligently with others implies being able to recognize and accept them as they are. Which is harder than it looks! Living intelligently with ourselves also means recognizing and accepting our own mental mechanisms, reactions and ways of thinking. Which is also more difficult than it sounds.

In this sense, praxisophy plays the dual role of self-knowledge and self-acceptance.

In his commentary on his work, Tayeb Chouiref uses Titus Burkhardt's metaphor to illustrate the point: love and knowledge are two sides of the same coin. Just as the sun is both a source of light (knowledge) and warmth (love), praxisophy enables us to work on both self-knowledge and re-knowledge: the more I know myself, the more I'm able to see myself coming in my wanderings and errors.

The more I get into the habit of decoding the mental mechanisms that cause me to produce my cognitive biases, the more I'm able to see them in action in others. The more I can understand and forgive myself, the more I can understand and forgive the errors of others.

How can I develop praxisophy skills?

Starting from the principle that we can't watch ourselves pedaling, we can already consider that no praxisophical approach is conceivable without interaction with another human being. A human being capable of being both a neutral, non-deforming mirror and, at the same time, that "reactive other" who produces a disturbance in one's ideology. In this sense, all proposals for self-coaching or self-analysis can be seen as swindles or intellectual im-postures.

Producing one's own philosophy in action: the ability to wonder

The wise man is the one who marvels at everything

André Gide

It's about knowing how to see the world with fresh eyes: Naivety is one of the main qualities of the practitioner of philosophy.

" Work on your power to astonish" suggests Joris Thievenaz. He talks about the "interloquant" subject. This capacity for astonishment is the first condition of the project to die a little each day to obsolete beliefs, and thus leave room for beliefs useful to intervention in the world and to the practice of the love of wisdom.

He who knows how to find the right words to develop his consciousness and inscribe it in impermanent duration.

To be astonished is to give oneself the opportunity to question one's automatic thinking.

To philosophize is to act through appropriate questioning to reveal the reality of my model of the world, to verify its congruence and fidelity with my experience of the world. It's a question of sharpening our tools to produce a reality of the highest fidelity.

In the practice of philosophy, as in the practice of martial arts, there is a permanence of the ephemeral or a continuous impermanence: nothing is true forever, and the ability to philosophize is lost just as the ability to play music or practice martial arts is lost.

"I consider philosophy to be on the side of incompleteness. I'm where I am because of a lack, an inability, an 'inaptitude to'. I think that if I had any sense of mastery, if my relationship with existence were self-evident, I wouldn't be in this world of philosophy.

Cynthia Fleury

Questioning or the art of sharpening your thinking

The purpose of philosophical questioning is to gain access to our innermost selves, where the source of our modes of meaning is rooted: how we decide what things mean.

In this sense, philosophical questioning needs both empty questions and sharp conceptual tools. Conceptual tools enable the praxisopher's apprentice to sculpt his own representations of the world and sharpen his own conceptual tools. They are found in different forms in different spiritual traditions, and their shape is a function of the environment in which they emerged, the mouth through which they passed.

The empty question is both universal and completely specific and contextual: what open question does our apprentice philosopher need at this moment in this specific context, so that it shatters the paradox of beliefs in which the apprentice philosopher finds himself? How will this questioning then create an awareness (Satori? Samadhi?) that is both liberating and a source of clarity?

Illustration: DepositPhotos - ngupakarti

Pour une philosophie en acte - Part 1 - Philosophy or praxisophy?

Philosophy in action - Part 2 - To philosophize is to die

Pour une philosophie en acte - Part 3 - Why philosophize?