Action philosophy seeks to contemporize and diversify the traditional philosophical canon, ensuring its adaptability and relevance to the exigencies of the 21st century. In doing so, it interrogates the epistemological and ontological definitions of “relevance” and “impact” of philosophical interventions within societal constructs. Philosophical practice does not merely operate within the confines of socially pertinent research but proactively engages with stakeholders, foregrounding issues of innovation and self-innovation, diversity, ethical considerations, epistemic methods, socio-political justice or holistic efficiency. Such engagements may, at times, contest and disrupt entrenched power structures.

One example of action philosophy is philosophical counselling, where practitioners work with individuals to address existential, ethical, or conceptual issues in their lives. Unlike psychotherapy, philosophical counselling focuses on clarifying beliefs, values, existential meanings, and lifelong purpose: it’s aim is not directly physical health nor psychological health, but philosophical health.

In 2019, I chose to call Philosophical Health the care approach considering to what extent philosophical thoughts, values and everyday actions are aligned (https://philosophical.health/). A philosophically healthy individual, group, system, or protocol aims at ensuring that everyday acts and choices, as well as sense-making goals and purposes, are pragmatically aligned with their ideals, values and worldview while respecting the regenerative, plural, harmonious and compossibilizing future of different forms of life. “Compossiblity” is a key concept of my approach: it is a concept initially proposed by German baroque philosopher Leibniz and emphasizes the simple but often forgotten truth that not everything is possible at the same time; in other words, a harmonious world is composed of domains of possibility that are compatible.

I have devised a method I called SMILE_PH, and acronym for Sense-Making Interviews Looking at Elements of Philosophical Health. The method is semi-structured, conducting the conversation with the interviewee/counselee across six consecutive steps: bodily sense, sense of self, sense of belonging, sense of the possible, sense of purpose and philosophical sense. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20597991231179336)

I will during my TIAS time conduct an intervention/feasibility study with patients of the Hospital (or future patients in their vast waiting list) using the SMILE_PH method with people suffering from insomnia. I will also publish two books on philosophical health, in 2024 and 2025.