Philosophical Community Building of the 21st century

Abstract

In the time of the 21st century there is a fundamental change in human communities that profoundly effects human communication, relations and, in general, human experience. How does philosophy of this time appear and how can philosophy become the guide in our life as it used to serve in the antic times? In the book market we see an elated rise of philosophical books, where philosophy is considered to be appropriate for counselling contemporary challenges of everyday life. The term „Philosophy, a way of life” is becoming more and more popular. The aim of my paper is to share the experiences of my „philosophical practice” experiment that I created in the winter of 2024/2025 around the creation of my PhD dissertation. The topic of my dissertation belongs to the field of Human-Animal Studies, which field is an interdisciplinary ground that is aiming to exceed the anthropocentric worldview. Besides, as member of the Philo Café movement of Hungary, the idea of how to make the academic research into a public philosophical act, has fascinated me since I decided to pursue a PhD. The interdisciplinary nature of the thesis and the experience in the Philo Café movement resulted in the philosophical experiment that positioned „philosophy” as a community building method, where unexpected findings resulted in human communication, relations and human experience in general.