TULLIA D' ARAGONA The impossible desire to merge with the beloved Tullia d'Aragona (1510–1556) was an Italian poet and philosopher. Like her mother, she was a courtesan (a court lady, companion of powerful persons), and was lucky to be born during a limited period of time when courtesans were given relative economic and social freedom. (Later in he...
VIDEO: David Sumiacher: ¿Qué es la autoreflexión? [spvideo]http://youtu.be/3YL4me6ZHys[/spvideo]
DE BEAUVOIR (1908-1986) Woman’s way of loving Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, and political activist, and was one of the first women to study at the Sorbonne. During her studies she met Jean-Paul Sartre, and the two became life-long friends, intellectual companions, as well as lovers who maintai...
SOPHIE DE CONDORCET Sophie de Condorcet (1764-1822), born Marie-Louise-Sophie de Grouchy, was a French writer, translator, and hostess of an intellectual salon in Paris, where she was well-connected with important thinkers of the day. Her husband was the Marquis Nicolas de Condorcet, a mathematician and philosopher, and the couple shared many polit...
WHAT IS DEEP PHILOSOPHY? Deep Philosophy means philosophizing (doing philosophy) in a contemplative, personal, and self-transformative way. In Deep Philosophy we contemplate from our inner depth on fundamental issues of life, in togetherness with companions. Several elements in this definition are especially important: First, Deep Philosophy is a w...
LEXICON OF DEEP PHILOSOPHY
Bubble – an insight that surfaces in the mind, like a bubble rising from the depth of a lake, accompanied by a sense of special realness and significance.
Centering exercise – a short meditative exercise at the beginning of a contemplative session.
Cipher – a short text which can take us beyond the level of objective understanding to a deeper, non-objective level of encounter reality. (Origin: Karl Jaspers. See also Paul Tillich on “symbols.”)
Clearing – an inner space of silence which we create when we empty a portion of our mind from thoughts and images.Companion – a member of a Deep Philosophy session or group.
Companionship – a group of participants who contemplate in togetherness over time.
Contemplation – reflecting on a text or idea, in a group or individually, from our inner depth.
Door to the depth – a selected phrase in a philosophical text, which cannot be fully grasped intellectually, and which can lead us to our inner depth. (See “Cipher”)
Facilitator – a participant who leads a session of a Deep Philosophy.
Gentle reading – a contemplative technique of reading a text silently, receptively, while listening carefully to the meanings that rise in one’s mind.
Guided philosophical imagination – a technique of exploring a philosophical text through visual imagination, using non-discursive understanding.
Inner depth – a central dimension of a person’s being, often dormant and hidden. When it awakens, either spontaneously or through Deep Philosophy exercises, it gives us a sense of intense focus and realness, often with new understandings that we experience as precious and meaningful.
Interpretive reading – a technique of studying a philosophical text in a semi-contemplative way. Participants resonate with it sentence by sentence or passage by passage.
Landscape of ideas – the conceptual “skeleton” or “essence” of a philosophical text, viewed like a network of landmarks on a geographical terrain.
Map of ideas – a sketch of the central concepts of a philosophical text, which represents the text’s conceptual structure (“conceptual landscape”). It is used in semi-contemplative techniques to understand a text “from the inside.”
Polyphony - a discourse in which the companions compose several different lines of thought in parallel, like musical instruments in a concert. Participants respond to the text, as well as to each other, without agreeing or disagreeing, without judging or analyzing each other.
Precious moment – a special moment in a Deep Philosophy session, in which participants sense an intense meaningful insight.
Precious speaking – a contemplative technique of communicating in a condensed, poetic way. Participants formulating a sentence carefully yet spontaneously, without repetition or redundancy.
Recollection – a daily exercise which a companion does during the day in order to maintain connection to one’s inner depth.
Resonating – a technique in which we respond to the ideas of a text or companions without talking “about” them. Participants speak not “about” but “with,” like musicians playing side by side in the same concert.
Ruminatio (repetitive reading) – a contemplative technique in which we read a brief text again and again in order to go beyond our normal patterns of understanding and to awaken insights.
Speaking-from (contrasted with speaking-about) – a contemplative discourse in which we attend to the source within us from which our ideas emerge.
Text-contemplation – reflecting on a philosophical text from our inner depth.
Togetherness – a “shoulder-to-shoulder” relationship between companions that is not judgmental and welcomes personal differences. Companions think, speak, and act “with” each other, like musicians playing together.
Trio – a small group of philosophical companions conducting a Deep Philosophy session, usually of three companions. (In the case of four participants, it is usually called a Quartet). The dynamics of a trio is more personal than in a larger companionship.
Voice of reality – a philosophical idea, viewed not as a theory about reality, but as an expression of human reality, and as emerging from it.
Voicing is a contemplative technique in which the participants sit silently for a few minutes, reflect on a short text, and write gently the ideas that rise in their minds. In this way they "give voice" to their inner depth.
DEMOCRITUS PLEASURE, HAPPINESS AND CHEERFULNESS Democritus (c. 460 – c. 370 BC) was a Greek philosopher known primarily for his theory of atoms, but in fact he wrote about many topics, although only fragments have survived.For Democritus, happiness is a central goal of life, but it must be balanced, moderate, and free of excessive passions. This ki...
RENÉ DESCARTES I am a thing which thinks René Descartes (1596-1650), an important French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, is considered the father of modern philosophy. Under his influence, philosophy became centered on epistemology (the study of knowledge) for three centuries. The question “What do I really know?” became a starting point...
VIDEO: Interview with Detlef StaudeThe adventure of searching for orientation in doing philosophy Detlef Staude is a philosophical practitioner living and working in Berne, Switzerland. He is the head of the Swiss association for philosophical practice, and gives counseling and workshops to individuals or groups.
VIDEO: Detlef StaudePhilosophieren als Abenteuer der Orientierung [spvideo]http://youtu.be/PvN_8kiytKA[/spvideo] Detlef Staude ist ein philosophischer Praktiker, der in Bern / Schweiz lebt und seine Philosophische Praxis philocom führt. Er ist Koordinator des Netzwerkes philopraxis.ch , macht Gesprächsgruppen, Seminare, Workshops, Vorträge, Phi...
