Texts to
keep thinking with.

Does feeling more strongly mean perceiving more accurately? When the intensity of our emotion becomes proof of someone else’s fault, feeling stops being a piece of experience and becomes a verdict. A case for a sensitivity to injustice that is not exalted, but educated.

Nuance is readily set against binary thinking. But nuance has two uses: one makes a thought more precise, the other makes it so indeterminate that it escapes examination. Socrates did not ask Protagoras for a simple world, only for answers clear enough to be put to the test.

We often speak of “philosophical practice” in the singular, yet it takes very different forms. Socratic dialogue, Philosophy for Children, DVP, philosophical counseling, neo-Socratic dialogue, philosophy cafés: an overview of the main approaches, what they share and what divides them.

Why do we need so badly for something to be happening? In a meeting, a discussion group or in front of a screen, the abundance of words and stimulations gives the feeling of rhythm without any thought being built. A reflection on fertile slowness, on the effort of giving thought a direction, and on the conceptual fog that shields a discourse from criticism.

Should we listen to our fears or overcome them? Fear of judgement, of failure, of abandonment, of depending on others: our fears sometimes organize our lives without our knowing it. With Spinoza and Socrates, a reflection born of a philosophical practice retreat on the avoidance strategies we build so as never to be afraid again — and on what they end up costing us.

We’re quick to demand that others admit their wrongs, but facing our own mistakes is a different matter entirely. Why do we so easily confuse a single fault with a verdict on who we are? A reflection on confession, self-criticism, and the fear of losing our place among others.

After an argument, a betrayal, or a disappointment, some people close the door for good — a form of estrangement. But what are we really protecting when we pass a final judgment on someone? A reflection on power, forgiveness, the identity of being wronged, and the possibility of seeing someone differently.

This summer, the Philomobile hit the road again for a new kind of experience: traveling with a few companions, thinking together along the way, then offering passers-by a free, open invitation to talk and philosophize. From Franche-Comté to Lausanne, with Catalina, Corinne and Wei, this piece is about what these unplanned encounters put to the test — and what they reveal about ourselves.

In a philosophical practice workshop in Lausanne, participants distinguish the emotion itself — instinctive and beyond our control — from our relationship to it, which can be educated: observing it, naming it, understanding how it works. The article also explores the obstacles to this emotional intelligence, and why, in a Socratic workshop, emotions are not a nuisance but the very material of thinking.

In a philosophy workshop for adults, a demanding framework asks participants not to rush, to listen and to stop bringing the discussion back to themselves. This account tells of a tension with a participant who felt judged — and asks why we so often act against the values we claim, and what it means to observe and name without condemning.

Reading the manuscript of her friend Adja Bio Cécile, who recounts an Ivorian childhood marked by poverty without ever giving in to self-pity, the author questions, by contrast, our Western tendency to lock ourselves into a victim mentality in the face of far lesser hardships — and explores, with Spinoza and Socrates, how to get out of it.

Philosophical practice is distinct from psychology, which heals; personal development, centered on the individual; and academic philosophy, confined to universities. This text defines it as a collective exercise of thought, practiced in prisons, nursing homes, or marketplaces.

Our discourse rests on presuppositions we almost never question. This article shows why, without this work, arguing or objecting often just reinforces our beliefs; how to identify the different types of presuppositions; and how Nietzsche’s genealogical approach helps free us from them — to know ourselves and dialogue better.

Can we love without wanting to build a future together, or project a future without truly loving? A reflection on love, waiting, and commitment.

A staged dialogue around a provocative idea: should we expect nothing from others? Between the risk of approaching people only out of self-interest and the reality of our interdependence in family and friendship, this text explores what it really means to give without expecting anything in return.

Drawing on conversations with prisoners, teenagers and people close to me, this text examines what we ruminate on — disappointments, injustices, dark futures — and why these looping thoughts, which make us absent from what surrounds us, end up wearing out those we confide in. And why we shouldn’t try to get rid of them too quickly.

In a philosophy workshop at the village school of Lajoux, children aged 9 to 11 discuss what mistakes bring us: is it better to succeed quickly or slowly? Does cheating really give you self-confidence? A dialogue exploring the link between failure, effort and self-esteem.

Working on attitudes is what most unsettles people in philosophical practice: it is often uncomfortable, and playing Socrates doesn’t always win you friends… and yet it seems essential to me. Why thinking takes time, patience, humility and confidence.

Philosophical practice revives the exercises of ancient philosophy while coming close to today’s personal development. But can it really be called a therapy? This text asks who the “patients” would be, what it would cure, and what Nietzsche’s “great health” might mean — through two real cases of philosophical consultation.