Interdisciplinary Research in Counseling, Ethics and Philosophy - IRCEP

Short introduction of the Special Issue on 18th ICPP Zagreb 2025

Luka Janes — 2025-12-24

The 18th International Conference on Philosophical Practice (ICPP) continued the tradition of holding conferences that began 32 years ago in Canada and America, initially organized by Ran Lahav and Lou Marinoff. And which in its long history has spread throughout the world, in 2025 taking place in Zagreb, Croatia, organized by the Croatian Philosophical Practice Association. The three-day conference brought together a total of 136 speakers from 38 countries, who held their dissemination in various modalities – plenary and shorter presentations, workshops, seminars and philosophical walks. We are sharing some of the wealth of topics, methods and approaches presented during the conference in this special thematic issue, believing that the texts will contribute to the further spread of philosophical practice in the world, and inspire numerous practitioners and researchers to reflect and create new works. Possibly presented at the upcoming, 19th ICPP gathering, which will be held in June 2027 in Helsinki, Finland.

( Luka Janes - Croatian Croatian Philosophical Practice Association )

Scientific, Philosophical, and Practical Elements of Two New Philosophical Group Practices: Dialectic into Dialogos and the Socratic Search Space

John Vervaeke — 2025-12-24

In this paper we focus on describing two group philosophical practices, Dialectic into Dialogos (“DiD”) and the Socratic Search Space (“SSS”) (“these two practices”). In the discourse domain of philosophical practice, the closest analogue for purposes of contrastive understanding of these two practices is Nelsonian Socratic Dialogue (“NSD”). NSD aspires to reach consensus by extracting a targeted virtue concept from participants’ personal experiences of the virtue, only after which the consensus definition, if attained, is exposed to Socratic cross-examination, with the continued aim of attaining consensus understanding. It is thus primarily a ‘cataphatic’ or ‘positive’ practice. By contrast, DiD aspires to lead participants into an aporetic engagement with a targeted virtue concept. It is thus an ‘apophatic’ or ‘negative’ practice. Lastly, SSS integrates elements of NSD and DiD, forming a hybrid cataphatic/apophatic balance. Both DiD and SSS, but not NSD, are specifically designed to bring about conditions under which participants will enter dialogical flows states (“Dialogos”), affording them transformative experiences of distributed cognition that many practitioners have described as functioning like a “secular séance” that ignites the metaphorical fire that Heraclitus associated with the Logos, the intelligibility of ultimate reality. The cognitive science, philosophical, practical, and related supports for these two practices will be presented, along with some ethical considerations about facilitating them, and considerations about their relevance at this time of the advent of the AI revolution during the already existing meaning crisis.

Philosophical Practice in Humanitarian Crises: Existential Ruptures and the “Way of Well-Being” Model

Filiz Serdar Tugut — 2025-12-24

This study considers how philosophical practice can address humanitarian crises such as forced displacement and natural disasters, beyond logistical and psychological interventions. Drawing on fieldwork with 137 survivors of the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes in Türkiye, it examines the existential ruptures caused by the loss of home, community, and bodily orientation. Guided by Heidegger’s concept of Geworfenheit, Spinoza’s conatus and affectus, and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, the research applies the “Way of Well-Being,” a five-stage model of Awareness, Analysis, Unity and Integrity, Choice, and Sustainability. Findings indicate that philosophical group sessions foster emotional expression, conceptual clarity, bodily reintegration, and renewed agency. Rather than offering abstract consolation, philosophy here becomes an embodied, dialogical, and relational framework for meaning reconstruction. Addressing ontological dislocation emerges as essential for sustainable post-crisis recovery. The study positions philosophy not as a luxury but as an ethical necessity in humanitarian response, enabling survivors to transform rupture into a space of reorientation and re-creation.

Play as a form of philosophical experience

Adam Lalak — 2025-12-24

For philosophical practice to be transformative, it should go beyond the intellect and connect to the experiential level. However, engaging in philosophy also requires one to take a certain amount of distance from experience. This article argues that play offers experiences particularly suited to philosophical reflection. Drawing upon Bøyum’s analysis of philosophical experiences and Fink’s analysis of play, it argues that philosophy practitioners would be wise to use play in their work. Different kinds of play - agon, alea, mimicry and illinx - are considered in the light of their potential for delivering different forms of philosophical insight.

From Digital Disconnection to Soulful Reconnection: Merging Ancient Practices with Modern Technology

Eliyahu Attias — 2025-12-24

This paper presents a novel model at the intersection of applied philosophy and immersive technology, arguing for a paradigm where modern digital tools are designed to serve fundamental human needs for connection and meaning. Through an in-depth case study of the "House of Clues" initiative, we demonstrate a practical framework for leveraging Virtual Reality (VR) to facilitate profound communal and introspective experiences. This model transcends conventional uses of technology as distraction, repositioning it as a conduit for authentic encounter, healing, and philosophical inquiry. Drawing on the emergent fields of SpiritTech and Cyberdelics, this research contributes to the discourse on philosophical practice by showcasing how technology can be harnessed to bridge the gap between individual consciousness and collective wisdom, effectively transforming digital platforms from barriers into bridges of human.

Placefulness: A philosophical walk at Diogenes Village, Medimurje, Croatia

Peter Harteloh — 2025-12-24

This paper will describe the development of the method, report the results of a philosophical walk at Diogenes Village (Medimurje) and offers an explanation for the philosophical nature of walking: “placefulness”. Harteloh’s method for philosophical walks developed from a free search for a (“your”) place in nature to a structured Socratic exercise. The walk at Diogenes village was demonstrating the method. Citations of philosophers from eastern or western tradition were handed out (randomly) to participants. They were asked to come up with a concept (neologism or combining words allowed) suiting both the citation and a place they encountered during the walk. After conceptualization, the conceptualizer is questioned by the other participants and asked to choose one of the questions, not to be answered but to walk with during the rest of the walk. The conceptualization and questioning mark the walk as Socratic exercise. The citations guarantee the philosophical content of the concepts formed. The person is the connecting element between place and concept. In their order of appearance the concepts form a kind of story expressing the morale of the walk for the group. In accordance with the nature of Diogenes’ philosophy, the concepts formed during this particular walk were not read as a rational meaning theory, but as a kind of poem. “Placefulness” - a modification of mindfulness - is a conceptualizing of the philosophical walk as such. It is the place that triggers the conceptualiza-tion, filling the mind of the participant for the present moment by a concept expressing personal or situational wisdom.

Philosophical Community Building of the 21st century

Liberta Csonka — 2025-12-24

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.