Philosophical Health

<p>Bringing together leading international and interdisciplinary scholars this ground-breaking volume examines the theory and practice of philosophical health in contemporary contexts of care broadly understood care for the self care for the other and care for the world.</p><p><br></p><p>But what do we mean by philosophical health? Whilst this book does not seek to provide a normative definition as it explores disparate perspectives and encourages pluralism in philosophical ways of life one may envision philosophical health as a state of creative coherence between a person's or a group's way of thinking and their way of acting such that the possibilities for a good life are increased and the needs for flourishing satisfied.</p><p><br></p><p>An idea central to philosophical health is the concept of 'possibility'. Without a sense of self-possibility and openness to the future health loses meaning and conversely pathologies are defined by various kinds of impossibilities. As such philosophical health reconsiders care as a process of cultivating or pruning the compossible in embodied psychological and social terms of allowing things to re-generate or in some cases to vanish.</p><p><br></p><p>Drawing on the history of philosophy phenomenology new materialism post-colonialism but also a wide range of contemporary approaches to philosophical practice Philosophical Health </em>sheds light on the understudied philosophical dimension of care and the healing dimension of philosophizing. Advocating philosophy as a lived practice it uncovers the increasing relevance of philosophical health to contemporary debates on well-being well-belonging counselling and development.</p>