For me Practical Philosophy is Reflective Practice. Practising reflection puts our ideas continually under scrutiny and makes them available for change. My views are continually under revision, continually changing and for me that is the essence of Practical Philosophy.
Reflecting is a very practical undertaking. It requires us to think on and through a subject which is important to us. Thinking requires effort and is best done when we feel keen to pursue some particular train of thought. Thoughts that we can follow most readily are to do with matters which affect our lives or the lives of those close to us, and revolve around concerns that apparently have no present solution. No reflections here claim to reach a result, or a right result, sometimes the process may make things clearer, but in so doing, in the short term, may make matters worse. The process of reflection is a continuing one. Sometimes we reach conclusions only to overturn them at a later date. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by discovering something we did not know before and which we feel opens up a whole new part of life. It may work for a while until we find it untenable or unreliable. The process of reflection should be seen as a process of discovery into an open territory which is our future. It is a personal interrogation but not one that intends to find any psychological or past reasons for behaviour. Sometimes a reflection is in introspective investigation—one of questioning ourselves, sometimes it is a reflection directed at another or undertaken with another. Sometimes a reflection may be poetic, sometimes it may be terse and abrupt. Philosophical reflection does not demand quiet or solitude. Sometimes this can be stimulating, but so are people, noise and confusion. It is often good to seek out the clatter of the world—we should think more often of retreating to then retreating from.
All the reflections here are my own. Some simply came to me, some are part of concerted thinking. Some are stimulated by correspondence with another, or by conversation, or by seeing other people in the world. Some are set off by being with another, listening to what they have said, or remembering what they listened to when I spoke to them. Some come from quiet moments, some from the world at its noisiest. Some come when we feel tranquil and at peace, some when we are surrounded by the clatter of movement and turmoil. Some derive from times when anxieties seem distant, some when they face us with their full force. None are conclusive. All leave further questions to be thought of. All, however, take us to a place where we have never been before, because, before them, the thoughts we had, had never been.
Most of these written reflections form a new book entitled Beyond Within published by Not Equal Press.
They take various forms:
Some are formal explorations of thoughts and feelings;
Others are short fictional thoughts—stories stimulated by another or by something in the world. I find that sometimes placing reflections into words in this way illuminates my thoughts more clearly. Some of them speak of the eroticism in the world, one of the loss of childhood and of the distance of our past memories, another the horror of guilt, some of fear and horror, and one of the confusion of other worlds with different rules. They can be found here.
Still other pieces are more an attempt to capture something of a moment, or a moment’s thought or an idea in something of a poetic form. I call them ‘poem-ish’. They can be found here.
There are also reflections on the practicalities and meaningfulness of a philosophical life. They can be found here.
