Description / Aim
At a time of intense doubt concerning the characteristics of the «crises» which affect here and there the western societies, a certain interrogation sometimes a demand arises towards on the one hand the contribution of philosophy to the search for the meaning of existence and the experience of a coherent life and on the other hand to the critical reflection relatively to the practices which lead or participate to a such research. Critical reflection concerns also the perception philosophy constructs each time for itself, as directly and indirectly it is involved in the understanding of socio-political stakes. Through numerous practices, more or less innovative, such as philosophical cafés, philosophy workshops for children, especially «philosophical events», where the «desire for philosophy» and the «desire for art» are met, or even a whole production for the general public from philosophy magazines, through corridors with books for «personal development», up to cultural sites in shopping centers, the so called philosophical practices try to reconcile the demand of philosophicity with that of the connection of philosophy with the needs of the people and their societies. Nevertheless it is an issue whether this double demand is satisfied.
In this context, philosopher’s activity seems often to run the risk of losing its particularity drowning in an amorphous mixture of “soft” activities, only in appearance philosophical, which consciously or not they encroach on it, centered on, for example, spirituality, ecology, orientalism, healing, well-being, self-awakening/realization, various consultations, dialogue, critical thinking, creativity, innovation, voluntarism, design. Conversely, however, an attitude to unconditional denial of all new forms of philosophical practice and the research which concern them, although potentially capable of reinforcing a refolding to the idea of a pure philosophy and philosophical excellence, could cut off philosophers from the movements of the world and from activities, with which people try, exactly, to realize the primary philosophical plan, this one which concerns always fundamentally humanity: the formation of «a way of life, a form of life, a choice of life» (Hadot, P., La philosophie comme manière de vivre [Philosophy as a way of life], Paris: Albin Michel, 2001, p. 154) – with philosophy constitute a set of exercises towards this direction. The interrogation in relation with these exercises cannot but be a part of the philosophical attitude connected with the way of life.
Therefore, without abandoning its anchor in a history and a set of methods that make up systematically its particularity as a cognitive field, philosophy must also accept and take over its practical character, which is about among others:
- its ability to help in decision-making (it is practical, what is involved in the process of choosing, consultation, engagement),
- its ability to be incarnated in a form of life (it is practical, what is concretized in gestures, either actions or attitudes), or even its embodied form,
- its ability for discovery and creation of meaning for human activities (it is practical, what can register its meaning within the experience of persons),
- its possibility of questioning, criticizing and discussing in reference with this which remains problematic within human existence (it is practical, whose meaning remains open, without «truth» or a definitive answer).
Darron Cummings, Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo
The ambition of the Biennale organizers and the Laboratory of Research on Practical Philosophy is therefore to question, to explore the concept of philosophical gesture within a complexity that could not conceal the superficial visibility of its meaning: what is a philosophical gesture? How it can be characterized? How do we make a philosophical gesture? In what practices it is recorded? And on the verge of all these: are there, finally, gestures which are pure philosophical?
It is, of course, an ambition not so recent: from the ancient practices of self in philosophical schools to the contemporary political commitment in the name of philosophical principles, passing through Marxist debates over philosophy as «theory of theoretical practice» or from existentialist reflection about attitudes and actions through which the person «chooses oneself», philosophy has often be confronted with its practical appearances by opening the bow between theory and practice. The aim is the elaboration of the geometrical place or the intersection between the theoretical and the praxial, or the problematization of their own distinction or articulation as constituent of practical philosophy. It is of big interest here to explore the concept of praxis as ‘‘philosophical gesture’’ in parallel with the salience of the double question, on the one hand about the philosophical character of the praxis and the existence of a philosophical gesture and on the other hand about the gestural dimension of praxis and the praxial dimension of gesture.
Biennale’s basic aim, therefore, is not to reproduce or construct the ‘‘truth’’ of practical philosophy, gesture, but to highlight the abundance and the complementarity or conflictuality of meanings and interdisciplinary intersections which construct it incessantly, and moreover to explore the gray areas during this construction.
The theme of the Biennale, in its Conference part, is unfolded in four axis of work, to which, respectively, will also be distributed the proposals for Oral Communications, Workshops, Round Tables and e – Posters:
The philosophical gesture towards the City, from Plato and onwards, wanted to be radical. After Socrates’ death, the conflict between the philosopher and the City, as analyzed by Hannah Arendt, «had reached its point of paroxysm» and «is in this situation where Plato conceived the idea of the tyranny of the Truth» (Qu’est-ce que la politique? [What is politics?]), Paris: Seuil, Coll. Points, 2014, p. 59): the philosopher had to be a king. The figure of the philosopher’s «prince’s counselor», continuing to exist in the heart of the Republic, is its heritage. Today it is eliminated. However, the «need» for philosophy in the City is not eliminated with it. An «austere» philosophy, succeeds a philosophy whose gestures aspire to participate in the common sense, in this sense that «not only we have commonly but in addition makes us capable to integrate a common world and thus to make it feasible» (op. cit., p. 90) or even to disengage or to move away from it by understanding it as an epistemological obstacle (Bachelard, G., La formation de l’esprit scientifique, [Formation of the scientific mind], Paris: Vrin, 1938). However, philosophy within this common space does not seems to have any advantage; will it have a role? Is there a special gesture for the philosopher in favor of this common space, which is difficult to be constructed and recognized?
For many men and women of our world today, the search of the self, the search of personal identity, passes as «personal development» which has become the modern form of Bildung. However, such an important phenomenon cannot be only the result of coincidental tendencies dominating periodically or of massive cult. It reaches fundamental social and cultural developments. It deeply concerns the contemporary identity.
On the other hand, we cannot avoid realizing that the educational model that has been imposed, largely ignores all the tradition of moral gestures and existential exercises. The idea according to philosophy would be a global form of education is very old. By studying the ancient texts, Pierre Hadot insisted that philosophy, because it is an art of life, is essentially a set of varied practices and exercises, not the construction of a technical language intended for specialists (Hadot, P., Exercices spirituels et Philosophie antique [Spiritual exercises and Ancient Philosophy], Paris: Albin Michel, 2002).
This axis therefore, will bring to the light those minimal gestures that organize or disrupt ethics in plural environments, giving precisely emphasis on this which allows human person to be formed in different circumstances which at the same time built and challenge her. In this specific frame we will be also interested, for example, in philosophical intervention in clinical conditions. Because, in fact, if this intervention is closely related to caring for the other in the heart of a fully philosophical ethic, equally reflects the problematic of experience: isn’t philosophical intervention intending to give meaning to health and illness as a purely human experience? On the other hand, we try to understand how philosophical intervention reveals inner layers at the ethical level, especially when this ethics is subject to the particular conditions of the different fields of activity or in different professional environments : what would be the gestures that would emancipate ethics, seen as a persistent movement of reflection, in the frame of diversified contexts, engagements and limitations, within and beyond codes, methodologies, styles, practices?
Whether in the formation of the self or in the education of young people, education could not be exhausted in some operative actions (integration, training, transmission, evaluation, socialization, framing and so on). It is rather presented as a set of philosophical gestures intended to make us better or, more moderately, to help us live a life worthwhile to experience, that is, a philosophical life.
Nowadays a model that is marked by the utilitarianism and technocratic design of education (a model of skills, among others) promotes a technicalist perception of education, which is opposed to numerous practices that draw from sources of ancient education, the humanitarian Renaissance, the Bildung or, more recently, from the galaxy of the new Education, since the latter is not limited to ‘‘teaching techniques’’, but still carries a philosophical and political plan.
Biennale will therefore be able to investigate at least two types of problems:
* On a conceptual level, it will be interesting to explore the limits of the concept of ‘‘praxial gesture’’ in education distinguishing it from concepts, like those of exercises, practices, actions, attitudes, skills, results, but also associating it with them by anatomizing them or reorganizing them. In what sense smile to a child or reprimand it, are philosophical gestures? In what sense professional gestures in the field of education can be called «philosophical»?
* On a practical level, participations can focus on examples of philosophical pedagogical gestures and on their implementation. In this field, day-to-day experiences in classrooms and educational spaces could be co-examined with practices in which are lead by specific pedagogical and educational trends, under the light of a philosophical analysis ad intervention which will highlight the length, the intensity and the depth of practical philosophy as a grid for the development of the thinking and the formation of the reality .
Modern art and contemporary philosophy know today a common adventure. The boundaries between art and philosophy are confused. There is also a talk about ‘‘philosophical inspiration of modern art’’ (Moeglin-Delcroix, A., Les artistes contemporains et la philosophie [Contemporary artists and philosophy], Revue d’esthétique, 44, 2003). The artist not only reads the philosophers and is being inspired by them, but registers the philosophical question to the artistic action. «Performances» are basicaly questions of experience: they accept the challenge that, according to Dewey, art puts in philosophy, ‘‘a challenge that as a stake has the understanding, widening and improvement of experience’’ (Barbereau, Y., ‘‘Expérience et performance. Fragments d’un dialogue pragmatique’’ [Experience and performance. Fragments of pragmatist dialogue] in: Moeglin-Delcroix, op. cit.). To what extent philosophy can accept this challenge in its own self, in the bay of its own action in its particularity? Το what extent this acception and integration construct a place for practical philosophy? To what extent can philosophical gesture be possible to participate in this understanding, this widening and this enlargement of experience? Philosophical experience and artistic experience, philosophical gesture and artistic gesture can feed one another, co-work? These questions and these practices, common in art and philosophy, however, find their end in education as well. In what extent though the multiplication of references to art and artists as educational alternatives, but also the multiplication od educational initiatives attempting the junction of artistic and philosophical intervention, are related to practical philosophy
