The Inquiry Of Philosophical Counseling As Practical Wisdom In The Perspective Of Disciplinary Nature

Philosophical counseling began with the intention to the critique of academic philosophy and psychotherapy, in which on the one hand, it was the revival of ancient Greek philosophy tradition that philosophy was seen as practical wisdom and as concern for lives; and on the other hand, it’s an alternative way to deal with people’s problems about the meaning, value, and being of life which could not been solved by psychotherapy. Because it seems that philosophical counseling is very similar to psychotherapy which is widely recognized and authorized in the consultant profession, some people doubted whether philosophical counseling was an independent consulting field or it was only an alternative form of psychotherapy. So, philosophical counseling is faced with some difficulties or questions, such as, why philosophical counseling is "philosophical", what differences it is from psychotherapy, and what philosophical features it has?, and so on. Whether to clarify these problems was related to discern the nature of discipline of philosophical counseling, and then to develop as an emerging discipline. Therefore, this research was intended to investigate disciplinary nature of philosophical counseling. For this target, the disciplinary purport was analyzed; the approach and methods were judged; the inter-subjectivity of counselor-client relationship was discussed; and the relationship between philosophical counseling and psychotherapy was compared in this research.For the process of achieving the goal of the research, the main methods used in it are as follows:1) Methods of combining literature with text. By delving into the relevant research literature of Western philosophical counseling and Chinese thought resources, this research reviewed carefully key terms and important views about philosophical counseling and grasped systematically the purport, ideas, and methods of Western philosophical counseling, and the resources and characteristics of Chinese philosophical counseling, which provided specific foundation and source for the specific research and innovation.2) Methods of historical analysis and logical analysis. Through the analysis on the historic resource of ancient philosophical tradition, this research justified that philosophical counseling is practical wisdom in nature from the purport, methods, and the counselor-client relationship of philosophical counseling; and explored possible paths of philosophical counseling using Chinese philosophical resources according to logic required by contemporary philosophical counseling.3) Comparative research methods. Using the comparative research methods, this research studied the relationship between philosophical counseling and psychological counseling and psychotherapy, analyzed and clarified the essential difference between them, thus made an accurate position of philosophical counseling. Using the comparative research methods, this research compared differences between western and eastern cultural backgrounds and explored the Chinese wisdom that could be used in philosophical counseling. And next, the this research justified that the disciplinary nature of philosophical counseling is practical wisdom by using above methods, the specific argument as follows:First, this research conformed that practice wisdom was one of the core essence of philosophy by the interpretation of the significance of classical philosophy and the analysis of the modern instituted academic philosophy. The original meaning of ancient Greek philosophy was the love of wisdom. The ancient philosophy was not only theoretical wisdom, but also practical wisdom, which was closely related to everyday life. The ancient philosophy was a way of life, which was therapeutic effect on life, so practical wisdom is the fundamental meaning of philosophy. However, the significance of practical wisdom of philosophy was severely enshrouded on modern times, and meanwhile, scientific psychological counseling and psychotherapy widely used to help relieve human from suffering as though it has some limitations and dangers to the clients. For these two reasons, some philosophers advocated to return to the classical significance of philosophy, which means that philosophy leave out of the ivory tower and go into people’s lives so that it can help people enhance their practical wisdom, and relieve or prevent people from suffering and confusion. This kind of philosophical practice is philosophical counseling. In short, the purport of philosophical counseling was to question modern instituted academic philosophy and attempt to restore the ancient Greek philosophy, in which philosophy helped people to examine their life and achieve self-transformation and transcendence as the way of life and practical wisdom.Second, from the view of practice, philosophical counseling is very similar to psychological counseling and psychotherapy. From its inception, philosophical counseling has been trying to get its own independently counseling status by being distinguished from psychological counseling and psychotherapy. This research distinguished the relationship between philosophical counseling and psychotherapy from the different aspects, such as the aim, approach and methods, counselor-client relationship, and security. From practical wisdom which was the nature of philosophical counseling, philosophical counseling was located in the field of practice in order to be established a unique consultative status. And meanwhile, philosophical counseling is closely linked to psychological counseling and psychotherapy because of the philosophical origin of psychology as well as the philosophical basis of psychological counseling and psychotherapy. Therefore, as practical wisdom, philosophy counseling is beneficial and essential alternative to psychological counseling and psychotherapy.Third, after development of thirty years, philosophical counseling indicated its diversity on method. Gerd Achenbach, the founder of philosophical counseling, believed that philosophical counseling had no method while Lou Marinoff, Ran Lahav, Peter Raabe, Elliot Cohen,and others developed their own unique method in their practice of philosophical counseling. This research justified from the perspective of method that philosophical counseling is philosophical by the analysis of multiple perspectives on the method of it. In philosophical counseling, philosophical counselor helps client to clarify the concept of himself and the world, and make the right decisions to his or her life by philosophical reflection and philosophical dialogue. Because there is no unified paradigm, it is not only difficult to communicate each other in the field of philosophical counseling, but also there is no uniform certification standards in training philosophical counselor, which led to criticism to philosophical counseling and question to its unique academic status. This research sorted out the methods of different philosophical counseling, analyzed their difficulties, and proposed the solutions for these problems in finding the universally philosophical elements in method of philosophical counseling after addressing above plight on the basis of diverse and eclectic approach.Fourth, this research analyzed the counselor-client relationship and concluded that the real philosophical dialogue was the dialogue of inter-subjectivity, and counselor-client relationship in philosophical counseling was the relationship of inter-subjectivity. Philosophical counseling is conducted through dialogue between counselor and client, which means an essential relationship between counselor and client. Counselor-client relationship is generated in the dialogue, in which the nature of the dialogue relations is "I-you" relationship called by Martin Buber, which is inter-subjectivity. In this relationship of inter-subjectivity in philosophical counseling, philosophical counselor expresses the love, concern, respect, sincerity, trust, as well as the openness to his or her client. Because counselor values on different aspects, counselor-client relationship in philosophical counseling is often viewed as a therapeutic relationship, teacher-student relationship, partnership or cooperative relationships. And meanwhile, in principle, philosophical counselor first should be a philosopher, which is determined by the purport and methods of philosophical counseling. And philosophical counselor is not only a philosopher, but also a counselor because philosophical counseling is a kind of practice different from academic philosopher. So philosophical counselor should be a Socratic-style philosopher, which is more important to practice philosophy than to study philosophy. Therefore, philosophical counselor should also have the practical ability and corresponding to philosophical spiritual qualities, and follow the principle of ethics, which means that philosophical counselor should be trained and certified.Finally, while western scholars have different views and expectations on the development of philosophical counseling, however, there is a dilemma in western philosophical counseling which can not be avoided by them, of which western philosophical counseling can not yet be generally recognized. From the critical reflection and discussion on the development of philosophical counseling, this research attempted to diagnose problems philosophical counseling, to find the ideological resources of practical wisdom from Chinese philosophy that can be used to supplement and repair the practical wisdom of Western philosophy in consulting practice, and explore the initial principle of priority consideration to the introduce the practical wisdom of Chinese philosophy to western philosophical counseling.In short, it can be concluded that philosophical counseling is practical wisdom in nature of its discipline by the argument above on the purport, methods, counselor-client relationship of philosophical counseling.