Federico Emmanuel Mana (Argentina)

What is the difference between a "philosophical counsellor" and a "traditional philosopher"? Firstly, we must say that while the "traditional philosopher" developed a theoretical and academic life, the "philosophical counsellor" looks forward to apply the theory in different ways, actions and events. Nevertheless, this distinction is a little bit abstract and weak because "philosophical counselling" is not a concept that takes a definition with the simple act of using it. Therefore, the hypothesis here presented will be a short exposition of a doctoral thesis in progress: applied philosophy means to work with a method that functions like a bridge between two points: departure and arrival. Which are these points? Departure: the preconceptions of each philosopher regarding humanity, existence, happiness, etc. Arrival: their objectives in the field of counselling. That is to say, the philosophical practitioner should outline the theory like the "traditional" one and also outline the strategies for such theories to have an impact in people's lives. This way to conceive philosophical counselling will guide us to take a position in an always open discussion in this discipline: the application or not of a method. The point of this lecture will be exploring the idea that the use of a method is inevitable if we want to develop philosophical counselling because we need a strategy to build a bridge between our theory that will sustain our work along with our goals to achieve in our practice.