The Philosophical Consultation

What is a philosophical consultation? Asked to describe it in 100 words, ChatGPT gave the following:

A philosophical consultation is a structured dialogue where a trained philosopher helps someone examine life questions, dilemmas, or existential concerns using philosophical reasoning rather than therapy or coaching. Instead of diagnosing or offering quick fixes, the consultant facilitates reflection, clarifies concepts, challenges assumptions, and explores alternative perspectives. The focus is on cultivating wisdom, autonomy, and deeper self-understanding. It draws on the philosophical tradition—Socrates’ questioning, Stoic resilience, existential inquiry—while staying practical and conversational. The goal isn’t to provide definitive answers but to help individuals think more clearly, confront uncertainty, and orient their lives with greater meaning and coherence.

This is not wrong. It is in fact quite a good description. But since it generalises it covers a whole variety of approaches, methods, styles and intentions of different philosophical practitioners. While most practitioners would more or less, I think, accept ChatGPTs description, watching them work you may struggle to see what some of them have in common. Some apply Socratic questioning, some stay more conversational. Some focus on clarifying concepts and challenging assumptions, some are more interested in cultivating wisdom. You will find some of the above in all of the consultations included here, but not all of it in any of them. And still they claim to be doing the same thing: giving philosophical consultations.

(Consultation is my preferred term and the one I use here, with the caveat that it is not to everyone’s liking. The terminology is a question in itself. Some prefer to call it philosophical counselling, some like to see it as a philosophical enquiry. Some call it a therapy, some refuse that term completely …)

To try to bring some clarity to the issue, I decided to interview a number of philosophical practitioners who regularly engage in philosophical consultations to ask them what a consultation is, what the point of it is, who it is for and what the possible ethical implications of engaging in it might be. I also had the idea that I would ask each practitioner to do a consultation with me as client: it is one thing to talk about your work, most people are happy to do that. It is another thing altogether to show it. To my pleasant surprise, almost all of the practitioners I contacted were happy to do both the interview and the consultation and to let me publish them online. I came with the same question to all the consultations – it is interesting to see how different practitioners with their respective method or style deal with the same issue – and I chose what I thought was a rather safe one: “Why is it so important for me to understand things?” But of course any question you bring to the discussion will reveal something about yourself, as did this one.

Some different “schools” or approaches to philosophical consultation can be identified, such as the more conversational one or the more logic-based one. But few are purists and most tend to mix a bit of both. What is philosophical in these discussions also depends on who you ask: Is it to delve into your existential issues and try to clarify your own ideas of how you fit in the world; to read philosophical texts and find connections in them to your own being; to conceptualise your ideas, problematise your suppositions and spot contradictions in your speech?

Having had these discussions and consultations does not make it any easier to give a precise definition of this practice. It reminds me of Wittgenstein’s concept of “family resemblance”. He pointed out that “game”, for instance, cannot be understood through a single common essence but rather through a network of similarities. Give a definition and it will be both too broad and too narrow at the same time: There will always be some activities that do not fit the definition but which we still call games; at the same time there will be some activities which seem to fit it quite nicely but which we would not call games. What we call games – or philosophical consultations – differ in details but they share some common features, enough of them to claim that they belong to the same family.

What follows is a collection of discussions and consultations where each practitioner is given the space to explain their practice and to show it. I have my preferences just as you will have yours. It does not make much sense to me to say who is doing it the “right” way. I can find interesting ideas in all of them, even those that are rather far from my own ideals of what a good philosophical consultation is. Some things are however more surprising and I would not have thought to include them in a consultation. But since Aristotle tells us that wonder is the origin of philosophy, now is as good a time as any to start philosophising.

Click on the names or images below to access the videos.