Encounters
Manuel Paz-y-Miño visited the Netherlands
2009/Jun/30 01:02 PM
Manuel Abraham Paz-y-Miño is a professional philosopher and philosophical practitioner in Lima, Peru. Last year he studied applied ethics at the Linköping University, Sweden, thanks to a study grant from the European Commission. Last week, on his way back from Sweden to Peru he stayed with friends in the Netherlands for six days. This weekend, he stayed with me and my wife in the province of Limburg, near the German border.
Saturday we visited the Karl Marx Museum in the German town of Trier, Marx’s birth-place. It is interesting to realize that Marx introduced a specific meaning of the words ‘praxis’ and ‘practical’ into philosophy. Is there - or could or should there be - any relation between a political use of the words ‘praxis’ and ‘practical’ in philosophy, and the way philosophical practitioners use those concepts? Some say, at least in some Latin-American countries the national political situation makes it inevitable for philosophical practice to be political. To speak openly and honestly about the things you’re moved by and think about in daily life and work, e.g., in philosophical cafés, is a political action. At the 9th ICPP, last year in Carloforte, Italy, the German philosophical practitioner Thomas Polednitschek introduced ‘the political Socrates’. Because both the philosophical counselor and his clients are citizens, with rights and duties in ‘the polis’, he said, ‘politics’ is present in their philosophical dialogue.
Sunday, Will Heutz joined us. In my garden, under the hot sun, we discussed issues of philosophy and philosophical practice. One of the topics was ‘philosophy and paranormal claims’, an issue Manuel gave a lecture about in Berlin last month. We had an interesting discussion about this, with Will being more open to the possibility of paranormal phenomena, including in philosophical therapy, and Manuel being more skeptical and critical.
We learned a lot from Manuel about philosophical practice in Peru and the other Latin-American countries.
Monday, Manuel met Maaike Merckens-Bekkers, who philosophizes with children in Amsterdam.
(Blogger: Leon de Haas)
Saturday we visited the Karl Marx Museum in the German town of Trier, Marx’s birth-place. It is interesting to realize that Marx introduced a specific meaning of the words ‘praxis’ and ‘practical’ into philosophy. Is there - or could or should there be - any relation between a political use of the words ‘praxis’ and ‘practical’ in philosophy, and the way philosophical practitioners use those concepts? Some say, at least in some Latin-American countries the national political situation makes it inevitable for philosophical practice to be political. To speak openly and honestly about the things you’re moved by and think about in daily life and work, e.g., in philosophical cafés, is a political action. At the 9th ICPP, last year in Carloforte, Italy, the German philosophical practitioner Thomas Polednitschek introduced ‘the political Socrates’. Because both the philosophical counselor and his clients are citizens, with rights and duties in ‘the polis’, he said, ‘politics’ is present in their philosophical dialogue.
Sunday, Will Heutz joined us. In my garden, under the hot sun, we discussed issues of philosophy and philosophical practice. One of the topics was ‘philosophy and paranormal claims’, an issue Manuel gave a lecture about in Berlin last month. We had an interesting discussion about this, with Will being more open to the possibility of paranormal phenomena, including in philosophical therapy, and Manuel being more skeptical and critical.
We learned a lot from Manuel about philosophical practice in Peru and the other Latin-American countries.
Monday, Manuel met Maaike Merckens-Bekkers, who philosophizes with children in Amsterdam.
(Blogger: Leon de Haas)
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