Philosophical Practice as Spiritual Exercises towards Truth, Wisdom, and Virtue

Abstract

The concept of spirituality has a long philosophical history. Based on detailed studies of a history of spiritual exercises from Socrates, the Stoics, Epicureanism, to early Christianity, the former catholic priest Pierre Hadot conceives philosophical practice as spiritual exercises in learning how to live a philosophical life. Following this idea, a number of philosophers such as Gerd B. Achenbach started the contemporary movement of philosophical practice in the 1980s, which aimed to apply philosophical theories and methods to discussions about issues people constantly encounter in life, mainly in the forms of philosophical counseling and philosophical therapy. In this paper, after showing that philosophical practice has already become a new frontier in philosophical research, we further argue that philosophical practice as spiritual exercises is an exercise of reason and logos, while certain kinds of religious exercises such as Zen arts can also constitute an important part of philosophical practice. We conclude that in light of the distinct plurality of the methods and modes of philosophical practice and the spiritual exercises involved, philosophical practice can be considered a meaningful and applicable approach to pursuing truth, wisdom, and virtue, which is of great didactic and ethical significance in the post-COVID-19 era.

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Citation: Ding, Xiaojun, and Feng Yu.
2022. Philosophical Practice as
Spiritual Exercises towards Truth,
Wisdom, and Virtue. Religions 13:
364. https://doi.org/10.3390/
rel13040364
Academic Editor: Daniel M. Stuart
Received: 18 March 2022
Accepted: 11 April 2022
Published: 15 April 2022
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religions
Article
Philosophical Practice as Spiritual Exercises towards Truth,
Wisdom, and Virtue
Xiaojun Ding 1, * and Feng Yu 2,*
1Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an 710049, China
2Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China
*Correspondence: xiaojunding@xjtu.edu.cn (X.D.); psychpedia@whu.edu.cn (F.Y.)
Abstract:
The concept of spirituality has a long philosophical history. Based on detailed studies
of a history of spiritual exercises from Socrates, the Stoics, Epicureanism, to early Christianity, the
former catholic priest Pierre Hadot conceives philosophical practice as spiritual exercises in learning
how to live a philosophical life. Following this idea, a number of philosophers such as Gerd B.
Achenbach started the contemporary movement of philosophical practice in the 1980s, which aimed
to apply philosophical theories and methods to discussions about issues people constantly encounter
in life, mainly in the forms of philosophical counseling and philosophical therapy. In this paper, after
showing that philosophical practice has already become a new frontier in philosophical research,
we further argue that philosophical practice as spiritual exercises is an exercise of reason and logos,
while certain kinds of religious exercises such as Zen arts can also constitute an important part of
philosophical practice. We conclude that in light of the distinct plurality of the methods and modes of
philosophical practice and the spiritual exercises involved, philosophical practice can be considered a
meaningful and applicable approach to pursuing truth, wisdom, and virtue, which is of great didactic
and ethical significance in the post-COVID-19 era.
Keywords:
philosophical practice; philosophical counseling; philosophical therapy; Pierre Hadot;
spiritual exercises; spirituality; religion; truth; wisdom; virtue
1. Introduction
What is the use of philosophy? What can philosophers contribute to others and to
society? At the very least, is learning philosophy beneficial to the learners themselves?
Such questions probably are what philosophers will often think of and be asked about. In
Fortress Besieged
圍城
, a Chinese novel from the twentieth century, there is a famous scene
when Chao Hsin-mei
趙辛楣
satirizes Fang Hung-chien
方鴻漸
, who has a philosophical
background, by stating that: “In the eyes of those of us engaged in real work, studying
philosophy and not studying anything amount to one and the same” (Ch’ien 1980), which
indicates that since philosophical knowledge cannot be applied in practical work, the
learning of philosophy leads people nowhere and philosophy is thus useless. On the
contrary, Feng Youlan
馮友蘭
, one of the leading modern Neo-Confucianists, advocated
that: “Philosophy can make a man a saint. This is the useless use of philosophy. If becoming
a saint is to make the best of people, the useless use of philosophy can also be called great
use” (Feng 1986). The answer to the question of whether philosophy is useless, somewhat
useful or of great use may vary from person to person, and philosophical practice is a new
attempt made by some contemporary philosophers in response to it.
As a significant representative of the application turn of contemporary Western philos-
ophy, philosophical counseling and therapy, as well as other applications of philosophy to
daily life, are collectively referred to as philosophical practice (Ding 2016;Achenbach et al.
1984;Li 2007;Marinoff 2002;Raabe 2001). Contemporary philosophical practice originated
from a series of philosophical movements launched in Europe in the 1980s, but this does not
Religions 2022,13, 364. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040364 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions

Religions 2022,13, 364 2 of 22
mean that philosophical practice is something new. As early as ancient Greece, Rome, India
and China, philosophers have begun to play consultative and therapeutic roles within phi-
losophy to a certain extent (Marinoff 1999,2002,2017b,2020). The source of philosophy as a
theoretical inquiry which mainly relies on conceptual analysis and rigorous argumentation
can be found in Plato, although even he had endeavored to test his philosopher-king thesis
and put “The State” into practice in Syracuse as an advisor of Dionysius II (Burnyeat and
Frede 2015). Although this “armchair philosophy” has established a powerful kingdom
of thought for humankind through systematic logical reasoning and abstract speculation,
many people are dissatisfied with its increasing isolation and detachment from the general
public and everyday life. Thus, philosophical practice results from the idea that philosophy
should move toward ordinary people in response to their dissatisfaction with traditional
academic philosophy.
Philosophical practice is obviously an endeavor to combine philosophy with people’s
daily life. Robertson (1998) believes that, like applied ethics, philosophical practice is
a subcategory of applied philosophy. In philosophical practice, the practitioners and
the visitors deal with private and concrete life issues. The practitioners use a range of
philosophical techniques inspired by academic philosophy in order to make their dialogues
with the visitors genuinely philosophical. Through philosophical means, such as the use
of philosophical theories or methods, a trained philosophical practitioner often helps to
examine the visitors’ beliefs and to improve their ways of thinking, helping the visitors to
gain insights into their own experiences so that they can learn to think in a philosophical
way. Therefore, while philosophical practitioners can help people deal with practical or
existential issues in life, the ultimate aim is to help people further understand themselves,
improve themselves, and gain inner peace and tranquility.
The German philosopher Gerd B. Achenbach founded the first institution of philo-
sophical practice in 1981 in Bergisch Gladbach, an event that is often seen as marking the
beginning of the philosophical practice movement (Achenbach et al. 1984;
Achenbach 2010
).
At the beginning of the 21st century, Lou Marinoff’s book Plato, Not Prozac!: Applying Eternal
Wisdom to Everyday Problems (Marinoff 1999) became a best-seller, which made philosoph-
ical practice rapidly become popular among the general public in the US, even though
Marinoff himself and his theory and practice of philosophical counseling were contro-
versial (
Marinoff 2017a
). As the book’s title suggests, Marinoff (1999) rejected the over-
medicalization and over-medication prevalent in traditional psychotherapy and instead
advocated a philosophical approach to helping people accordingly.
Inspired by Kuhn (1970), Harteloh (2013b) regards philosophical practice as an emerg-
ing paradigm in Western philosophy, which is shown by the emergence of recognized
philosophical practitioners, representative philosophical practice theories and methods,
specialized philosophical practice organizations, journals for publishing papers on philo-
sophical practice, regularly held academic conferences, professional training and college
education, etc. Under the traditional “armchair philosophy” paradigm, many academic
philosophers are obsessed with profound thinking and argumentation on metaphysics and
epistemology, using abstract or even obscure terminologies to expound their philosophical
ideas. In contrast, people who do not have the corresponding philosophical background
often cannot comprehend these philosophical theories, and even fellow philosophers may
not be able to communicate with each other without obstacles in terms of concepts and
theories. Such theoretical work in philosophy undoubtedly has its positive significance, but
the philosophers’ philosophical theories and methods can hardly penetrate their own ways
of life or provide guidance and help for others to understand the world. Therefore, the limi-
tation of such philosophical research is obvious, which is partly why philosophy’s progress
is often less visible and less direct than natural science (
Bourget and Chalmers 2014
,2021;
Callard 2020;Chalmers 2015;Dietrich 2011).

Religions 2022,13, 364 3 of 22
Since Gerd B. Achenbach founded the first philosophical practice organization, the
Internationale Gesellschaft für Philosophische Praxis (IGPP), in 1982, philosophical practice
has rapidly gained acceptance and popularity on the European continent, and it especially
took roots and continued to flourish in the Netherlands. The number of philosophical prac-
titioners and regional organizations had experienced explosive growth, while more visitors
began to appear at the institutions of philosophical practice, and philosophical practice also
received a great deal of attention and coverage in the media worldwide (Marinoff 2017a).
Significantly, philosophical practice brings a new way of looking at philosophy (Gestalt
switch/shift) that is often incompatible with the academic one, which can be shown in the
recognition of certain philosophers or personal involvements that are neglected or denied
in academic philosophy but considered essential in philosophical practice. For example,
Michel de Montaigne, one of the most important thinkers and essayists of the French
Renaissance, was regarded as an outstanding pioneer of philosophical practice by Gerd B.
Achenbach. Achenbach enthusiastically argues that it is almost never the Kantian question
“how shall I live” which moves the visitor of philosophical practice, but more often the
question of Montaigne “what am I actually doing” (Achenbach et al. 1984). However, in
academic philosophy, the significance of Montaigne is not highly valued as such, and the
interpretation of his essays is also conducted in a different way.
The preliminary formation of philosophical practice as a new frontier is reflected in
the following landmark event: the First International Conference on Philosophical Practice
(ICPP) was co-organized by Ran Lahav and Lou Marinoff in Canada in 1994. It was
attended by 55 philosophical practitioners from all around the world. Since then, the ICPP
has been held every two or three years worldwide. In the ICPP meetings, people can often
witness emotional discussions among philosophical practitioners about issues such as who
can be qualified as philosophical practitioners in history and in the future, what is the
definition of philosophical practice, what are the goals and roles of philosophical practice,
what is the relationship between philosophical practice and psychological counseling, what
are the methods of philosophical practice, etc. All these discussions have constituted the
foundational discourses in philosophical practice and are still in hot debate.
Notably, one of the foundational discussions among practitioners is the nature of
philosophical practice: problem-solving (Amir 2004;Robertson 1998), worldview interpre-
tation (Lahav 1995), philosophical care of the self (Schuster 1997a,1997b), conceptual art
(
Grosso 2012
), critical thinking (LeBon 2007;Walsh 2005), wisdom inspiration (Lahav 2006;
Staude 2015), spiritual exercises (Davidson 1990;Hadot 1995,2002), etc. Most remarkably,
there is great controversy as to the role of spiritual exercises in philosophical practice: to
what extent the activities in philosophical practice can be considered spiritual exercises.
We can obviously see a dilemma here: some consider philosophical practice as a spiritual
exercise, while others do not. A prominent representative in this debate is John Cooper,
with his influential and even more controversial criticism of Pierre Hadot.
Based on St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Exercitia Spiritualia, and combined with detailed stud-
ies of a history of spiritual exercises from Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, to early Christianity,
Hadot (1995,2002) regards spiritual exercises in ancient philosophy as exercises in learning
how to live a philosophical life and emphasizes the different conceptions of philosophy that
have accompanied the trajectory and fate of the theory and practice of spiritual exercises
(Davidson 1990). However, Cooper (2007) criticizes that Hadot’s conception of spirituality
subordinates rational inquiry to the cultivation of intense states of emotional conviction
and that Hadot’s understanding of philosophy as an “existential option” risks providing
a voluntaristic or even irrationalist account of philosophical practice, which makes spiri-
tual exercises become distractions from the cultivation of reason (
Del Nido 2018
). Many
researchers have argued against Cooper’s distinction between religion and philosophy and
defended Hadot’s conception of philosophical practice as spiritual exercises (
Del Nido 2018
;
Grimm and Cohoe 2021;Kamtekar 2014;Sellars 2014).

Religions 2022,13, 364 4 of 22
In this paper, we will firstly present the theoretical and practical aspects of philosoph-
ical practice. Through a literature review, we will show that philosophical practice has
turned into a new frontier in philosophical research, which covers various topics rang-
ing from the resources, definitions, uniqueness, methods, goals, and some institutional
issues of philosophical practice. Furthermore, we will identify philosophical practice as
spiritual exercises in the broad sense, which is not limited to religion and tradition, and in
the narrow sense, which is constrained to the exercises of reason and logos. Particularly,
we will characterize the orientations of spiritual exercises in philosophical practice and
argue that philosophical practice could be used as a meaningful and applicable approach to
pursuing truth, wisdom, and virtue, which is of great didactic and ethical significance in the
post-COVID-19 era (Damianos and Damianou 2020;Feary 2020;Munroe 2020;Repetti 2020).
It should be noted that, for the convenience of argumentation, we will use the terms philo-
sophical practice, philosophical counseling, and philosophical therapy interchangeably in
this paper when the differences between them are not significant.
2. Philosophical Practice as a New Frontier in Philosophical Research:
Literature Review
According to Ding (2016), philosophical practice research worldwide generally covers
six aspects. The first is the historical intellectual resources of philosophical practice, i.e., the
practical wisdom of Eastern and Western philosophers. This part of the research focuses on
the inspiring philosophers and philosophical schools that have provided the intellectual re-
sources and support for the legitimacy of contemporary philosophical practice by clarifying
its theoretical origins and intellectual transmission. By exploring the philosophical thoughts
of Socrates, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, and early Christianity, Hadot (1995) summarizes
philosophy as a way of life, arguing that philosophy calls for people to strive to obtain
wisdom through spiritual exercises. In line with Hadot (1995), Ferraiolo (2010) points out
that although Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, two representatives of the Stoics, were a
slave and a emperor, their ideas on self-control can help modern people deal rationally and
effectively with the inevitable and uncontrollable ups and downs of life, so that people
can achieve inner peace and live a good life. Fatic (2014), on the other hand, argues that
Epicureanism as a universal philosophy of life can be a powerful tool for addressing issues
related to emotions and meaning in philosophical counseling.
In addition to ancient philosophers, many modern philosophers have also contributed
profound theoretical and intellectual resources to philosophical counseling. Robertson (1998)
argues that contemporary philosophical counseling draws much inspiration from the philo-
sophical thoughts of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Martin Buber, Martin Heidegger,
Jean-Paul Sartre, and Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein, among others. Spivak (2004)
points out that Søren Aabye Kierkegaard’s philosophical thoughts on human freedom
have strong explanatory power and relevance for philosophical counseling. In compari-
son, Shusterman (1997), by examining the philosophical theories and philosophical life of
pragmatists such as John Dewey, Nelson Goodman, Richard Rorty, and Hilary Whitehall
Putnam, proposes that philosophy should be used to analyze and guide individual lives
and make people better off.
The second aspect is the definition of concepts related to philosophical practice, such
as philosophical counseling, philosophical therapy, academic philosophy, and philosophi-
cal pedagogy. As with the question, “What is philosophy?”, the answer to the question,
“What is philosophical counseling?” is also inconclusive. Most philosophers have tried
to define philosophical counseling indirectly from their own perspectives around its ob-
jects, methods, and goals. Amir (2004) directly equates philosophical counseling with its
methods, arguing that philosophical counseling is a collection of methods that addresses
the issues and dilemmas of everyday life in a philosophical way. Lahav (1995), on the
other hand, sees philosophical counseling as a worldview interpretation and argues that
different philosophical counseling has different approaches to worldview interpretation.
Schuster (1997a,1997b) claims that philosophical counseling means that the philosoph-

Religions 2022,13, 364 5 of 22
ical counselors and the visitors philosophize about the visitors’ self in an autonomous
discussion.
The third aspect is the goals and roles of philosophical practice. Most researchers
believe that the purpose of philosophical counseling is to solve the problems encountered
by the visitors and to relieve the perplexities in their minds (Lahav 1995;Amir 2004).
Grosso (2012) sees philosophical counseling as a conceptual art and believes that the
purpose of philosophical counseling is to help the visitors see their problems in a new way
so that they can overcome these problems in a new way. Tsuchiya and Miyata (2015), on
the other hand, regard philosophical counseling as a viable tool for developing children’s
intellectual virtues in Philosophy for Children (P4C). In addition to the training of ways of
thinking and the search for wisdom, other researchers claim that philosophical counseling
is also an important way of teaching moral virtues. Jones (2012) sees cabaret comedy as
a form of philosophical counseling, in which the performers educate the audience about
morality by telling a personal story with universal meaning. However, Tuedio (2003) points
out that philosophical counseling does not make any commitment to the ultimate utilitarian
effect and that the philosophers’ only responsibility is to keep further inquiring.
The fourth aspect is the relationship between philosophical practice and other helping
disciplines or professions such as psychological counseling and therapy. An important
mission of contemporary philosophical practice at the beginning of its emergence was
to challenge the theoretical presuppositions as well as the methods and effects of psy-
chological counseling and therapy. Most researchers consider philosophical counseling
an alternative to psychological counseling and therapy, aiming at providing people with
guidance for rational living independently and avoiding the use of any psychotherapeutic
means (Achenbach 1998;Marinoff 2002;Raabe 2010). However, Russell (2001) argues
that there is no clear and unambiguous distinction between philosophical counseling and
psychotherapy if only by comparing what philosophical counselors and psychotherapists
both do and why they do it. Amir (2004) also points out that a decisive part of philosophical
counseling is the relevant psychological knowledge and experience of the philosophical
counselors; otherwise, the philosophical counselors will most likely be lost in their own
philosophical labyrinth.
Cohen (2013) argues that although philosophical counseling is not a complete substi-
tute for psychotherapy, psychotherapists need to use philosophical counseling to provide
visitors with more effective and profound ways to alleviate their mental disorders; therefore,
they see philosophical counseling as a complementary tool to psychotherapy. Mills (2001)
further points out that philosophical counseling is a form of psychotherapy, but it needs
structure and guidance to develop into a reliable approach to psychological problems, i.e.,
a theoretical and practical “philosophical-psychological” paradigm.
The fifth aspect is different methods and modes of philosophical practice, which is
the most frequently discussed theme in the field of philosophical practice. Just like in
every other emerging discipline, researchers like to classify philosophical practice into
different modes, using a variety of methods that they find “useful” as vehicles for their
counseling practice, depending on the philosophical resources (e.g., relevant philosophical
concepts, theories, and methods from the history of philosophy in the East and West)
to which they have recourse. If we discuss philosophical practice in a general sense,
there could be as many modes as we want, and thus philosophical practice exhibits a
distinct methodological plurality (see Table 1). Some of the more established approaches
in contemporary philosophical practice include, but are not limited to, spiritual exercises
(Hadot 1995), the existential approach (Russell 2001), the PEACE process (Marinoff 2002),
the FITT stages (Raabe 2001), the Roman Stoic approach (Lahav 2009), the neo-Socratic
dialogue (Brenifier 2020;Littig 2010;Nelson 1949), the IDEA method (Ferraiolo 2010),
logic-based therapy (Cohen 2013), issues tree (Raabe 2013), Epicurean ethics (Fatic 2014),
humor (Amir 2014), and poetry (Rolfs 2015). All of these modes can help the visitors tune
out the external distractions and focus on their minds (and bodies), leading to a possible
equilibrium in the end.

Religions 2022,13, 364 6 of 22
Table 1. Dominant theories/modes in philosophical practice.
Names of Theories/Modes Stages/Steps Main Sources/Authors
Neo-Socratic Dialogue
1. Identifying or deepening;
2. Criticizing or problematizing;
3. Abstraction or conceptualizing.
(Brenifier 2020;Littig 2010;
Nelson 1949)
PEACE
1. Problem identification;
2.
Exploration of emotions arising from this problem;
3. Analysis (questions, interpretations, and options
to resolve the problem);
4. Contemplation on the integral situation;
5. Equilibrium (coming to inner peace and ataraxia).
(Marinoff 1999,2002)
Logic-Based Therapy
1. Identify the counselee’s emotional reasoning;
2. Identify any irrational premises;
3. Refute any irrational premises;
4. Find antidotes to the refuted premises;
5. Exercise willpower in overcoming cognitive
dissonance.
(Cohen 2013)
FITT
1. Free floating;
2. Immediate problem resolution;
3. Teaching as an intentional act;
4. Transcendence.
(Raabe 1999,2001)
IDEA
1. Identify the real issue;
2. Distinguish “Internals” from “Externals”;
3. Exert effort only where it can be effective;
4. Accept the rest.
(Ferraiolo 2010)
Teleological-Narrative Model
1. Micro-procedure of narrative philosophical
practice (intention, action, and setting);
2. Practical inference (self, action, and purpose);
3. Macro-procedure of narrative philosophical
practice (long-term intention).
(Rhee 2015)
C.I.S.A.
1. Consciousness (self-consciousness, perceiving
others, relation consciousness);
2. Insight (hierarchical argument, conditional
statement, framework type, question-mode
argument, the developing type, crossing type);
3. Spiritual moving (self-inspection, spiritual
resupination, self-irony);
4. Ascend (to transcend the status quo, e.g., mood
and values).
(Li 2007,2015)
The sixth aspect is the entry requirements, training methods, curriculum planning,
value norms, and ethical codes for the philosophical counseling profession. Since philo-
sophical counseling is a relatively young profession that is still maturing and improving, a
number of practical issues related to the operation and development of the profession have
received the attention of many researchers. Hoffman (2003) offers a pertinent plan for the fu-
ture of philosophical counselors and philosophical counseling organizations.
Jopling (1997)
cautions the public about the dangers that philosophical counseling can present in certain
situations. Mills (1999) provides a review of the guidelines for philosophical counseling
issued by the Canadian Society for Philosophical Practice (CSPP), American Philosophical
Practitioners Association (APPA), and American Society for Philosophy, Counseling and

Religions 2022,13, 364 7 of 22
Psychotherapy (ASPCP) and points out many ambiguities existing in the professional codes
of ethics for philosophical counselors. Schuster (1995), on the other hand, offers some
practical advice for philosophical counselors in the United States who are concerned about
legal liability.
3. Philosophical Practice as Spiritual Exercises
Despite the pluralistic views toward the nature of philosophical practice that we have
seen, an important question that we are going to explore in this paper is to what extent
the activities in philosophical practice can be considered spiritual exercises. The concept
of spirituality has a long philosophical history. Feary (2014) outlines some philosophical
concepts and theories associated with dimensions of spirituality and introduced how
spirituality has been variously treated as a way of achieving transcendent vision (Plato and
Plotinus), as a method of attaining serenity (Stoicism and Epicureanism), as demonstrating
hope and forgiveness (Christianity), as a way of experiencing the sacred (Paul Ricoeur and
Hinduism), as connected to the Sublime (Kant and Lyotard), as moral community (Kantian
respect, Buddhist compassion, and Feminist caring), and as involving our relationship with
the world of nature (Transcendentalism, Native American philosophies), all of which can
be used in philosophical counseling with visitors in crisis.
Due to the manifold aspects of theories and the large scope of practices, philosophical
practice has long been regarded as an important way of, or even in some sense the same
thing as, spiritual exercises. The eminent French philosopher Pierre Hadot presents a
history of spiritual exercises from Socrates to early Christianity and a discussion of the
various conceptions of philosophy that have accompanied the trajectory and fate of the
theory and practice of spiritual exercises (Davidson 1990). Hadot considers Socrates, a
master of dialogue with others and of dialogue with himself, as the first clear illustration
of the practice of spiritual exercises and proposes that every spiritual exercise should be
“dialogical” because it is an “exercise of authentic presence” of the self to itself and of
the self to others, which “constitutes the basis of all spiritual exercise” (Davidson 1990).
Furthermore, Hadot investigates thoroughly how Stoicism and Epicureanism help cure
people’s passions, which are supposed to be the principal cause of human suffering (e.g.,
disorderly desires and exaggerated fears), aiming at a total transformation of one’s way of
being (Davidson 1990). Hadot especially emphasizes philosophy’s image as an “exercise
for death” through Stoicism, Epicureanism, Plotinus, Neoplatonism, and early Christianity,
all of which allow one to see the human world “from above” and elevate thoughts to “the
perspective of the Whole” (Davidson 1990).
In the following, to respond to certain critics of Pierre Hadot and to clarify some
possible confusions, we will identify philosophical practice as spiritual exercises both in
the broad sense, which is not limited to religion and tradition, and also in the narrow sense,
which is constrained to the exercises of reason and logos.
3.1. Philosophy as a Way of Life: Pierre Hadot and His Critics
Pierre Hadot, although not a philosophical practitioner in the strict sense, is the most
important advocate of the notions of “spiritual exercises” and “philosophy as a way of
life” in ancient philosophy (Hadot 1995). Hadot was a catholic priest for about six years
(1944–1950), and his use of the term spiritual exercise can undoubtedly be traced back to
his personal life history, which was in accord with philosophical practice’s requirement of
biographical elements for interpreting philosophy. Although Hadot acknowledged that
his use of the term “spiritual exercises” may create anxieties by associating philosophical
practices more closely with religious devotion than typically performed, he intended to
capture how spiritual exercises, such as devotional practices in the religious traditions,
were aimed at generating and reactivating a constant way of living and a higher perception
the world, despite all the distractions, temptations, and difficulties in life (Sharpe 2022).
Moreover, Hadot distinguished two lists of spiritual exercises, which do not completely
overlap, but provided us a fairly complete panorama of Stoico-Platonic-inspired philosoph-

Religions 2022,13, 364 8 of 22
ical therapeutics that demanded daily or continuous repetition of practice: firstly, there is
research (zetesis), thorough investigation (skepsis), reading (anagnosis), listening (akroasis),
attention (prosoche), self-mastery (enkrateia), and indifference to indifferent things; secondly,
there is reading, meditations (meletai), therapies of the passions, remembrance of good
things, self-mastery, and the accomplishment of duties (Hadot 1995, p. 84).
Philosophy was once all-encompassing and used to be a form of common wisdom for
a long time. According to Hadot, with the eventual outlawing of the ancient philosophical
schools, philosophers’ dialectical techniques and metaphysical views were integrated and
subordinated, first to forms of Christian monasticism and then, later, to the modern natural
sciences, and the conception of ancient philosophy as a way of life has largely disappeared
from the West (Sharpe 2022). In the meantime, philosophy withdrew to universities and
became hard to reach for ordinary people. However, Hadot maintained that the conception
of philosophy as a way of life has never completely disappeared from the West, resurfacing
in Montaigne, Rousseau, Goethe, Thoreau, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer, and even in the
works of Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, and Heidegger (Sharpe 2022). Therefore, philosophical
practice is, in fact, the common conception of philosophy, a return of philosophy to its
origin as a source of consolation, autonomy, and peace of mind.
Rabbow (1954) situated Exercitia Spiritualia back within the ancient tradition (Hadot
1995, p. 109) and gave a remarkable analysis of the exercises practiced by the Stoics
and Epicureans (Hadot 1995, pp. 126–27). For Hadot, spiritual exercises include not
only practices of reading, listening, dialogue, inquiry, and research, but also others such
as fasting or bodily exercise, which are not simply or primarily “intellectual”, therefore
Hadot’s use of the word “spirituality” is in much wider scope (Sharpe 2020), which is quite
apt to make us understand that these exercises are the result, not merely of thought, but of
the individual’s entire psychism (Hadot 1995, p. 82). Actually, spiritual exercises in Hadot’s
sense correspond to a transformation of our personality and our perception of the world by
the individual’s raising himself up to the life of the objective Spirit and re-placing himself
within the perspective of the Whole (Hadot 1995, p. 82), which will finally lead to wisdom,
a state of complete liberation from the passions, utter lucidity, knowledge of ourselves, and
of the world (Hadot 1995, p. 103).
However, the idea of conceiving philosophical practice as spiritual exercises is con-
troversial. John Cooper argues that the concept of spiritual exercises as Hadot develops it
has distorted the genuine nature of ancient philosophical practice because Hadot erred in
claiming that “spiritual exercises” are pervasive among ancient philosophers and central
to their ways of life, while, in fact, this judgment only applies to certain Roman (and
particularly Neoplatonic) philosophers and are thus far less central to ancient philosophy
than Hadot has claimed (Cooper 2007,2012). Furthermore, Cooper goes on to criticize
that Hadot’s language of spirituality and the associated idea that becoming a philosopher
entails a personal choice import existentialist concerns with the state of one’s self that
are at odds with ancient philosophy’s commitment to the use of one’s reason as the sole
basis for one’s way of life (Del Nido 2018;Grimm and Cohoe 2021). Most important of
all, since the term “spiritual exercises” originates from St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Exercitia
Spiritualia, Cooper doubts that St. Ignatius’ spiritual exercises, which focus on ends and
are imaginative or rhetorical, can inspire devotion to sacred texts or “intense feelings of
conviction” by which we understand ourselves and how we ought to live (Cooper 2012;
Del Nido 2018;Moberg and Calkins 2001).
Correspondingly, in defense of Hadot, Del Nido (2018) argues that Hadot has provided
a compelling argument that through employing imaginative, rhetorical, and cognitive
techniques, spiritual exercises are both necessary for and successful at producing a subject
in which reason is integrated into human character, and the concept of spiritual exercises
remains a viable component of theoretical frameworks for the study of religious ethics.
Del Nido (2018)
also identifies Hadot’s distinction between two broad categories of spiritual
exercises: “concentration of the self”, which turns our attention from our everyday concerns
back to our own selves, and “expansion of the self”, which applies the doctrines, arguments,

Religions 2022,13, 364 9 of 22
and methods of a philosophical school in one’s everyday life such that they form part of
one’s character (Hadot 1995).
Grimm and Cohoe (2021) further clarify the nature of spiritual exercises and ex-
plore a number of fundamental questions, such as the distinction between the discerning
and motivational powers of reason, and conclude that spiritual exercises figure crucially
in the idea of philosophy as a way of life, not just in the ancient world but also today.
Grimm and Cohoe (2021)
earnestly remind readers to understand the concept of spiritual
exercises in the broad sense of St. Ignatius of Loyola and Pierre Hadot, which includes not
only “devotional” acts such as meditating on one’s sins or the life of Christ, but also almost
any practice focused on ridding the soul of disordered attachments, and thus on bringing
the various elements of the soul into proper alignment. When spiritual exercises are under-
stood in the broad sense as encompassing a rich panoply of training, exercises, argument,
discussion, and so on (Grimm and Cohoe 2021), the different practices of spiritual exercises
in philosophical practice can be seen in Table 2.
Table 2. Different practices of spiritual exercises in philosophical practice.
Names of Practices Conditions/Subcategories/Stages/Steps Main Sources/Authors
Philosophical Café
1. Wherever there are eternal puzzles and provocations of the soul;
2. Wherever there is a free and spontaneous chance to ask questions
about the great riddles of life;
3. Wherever there is a clearing for philosophizing in a friendly social
context, without disruption of cost, constraint, leader, master, or guru.
(Ding 2019;Grosso 2002;
Marinoff 1999,2002;
Phillips 2001;Sauté1995)
Philosophical walk
1. Preparation (selecting quotations and/or designing a route);
2.
Instruction of the participants (ground rule: “we walk or we talk”);
3. Walking along the route;
4. Stop at place of conceptualization (choosing a spot);
5. Questioning of the participant who calls for a stop (just questions,
no answers);
6. Choose a question (“the best question”);
7.
Take a picture on the spot of conceptualization for analysis and/or
group discussion;
8. Continue the walk;
9. Group discussion (reflection and narrative abstraction).
(Harteloh 2013a,2021)
Meditation
1. Active meditation (trains of thoughts pulled and pushed by
varieties of logical, ontological, epistemological, axiological
engines; endeavors to force solutions by generating kinetic energy
of thoughts);
2.
Inactive meditation (bringing the mind to a quiescent state or alert
repose through Zazen, Yoga, Tai Chi, or Chi Kung; endeavors to
coax forth solutions by accruing potential energy of quiescence).
(Marinoff 1999,2002)
Philosophical
Contemplation
1. Gentle reading;
2. Philosophical note;
3. Calligraphic contemplation;
4. Essential list;
5. Recitation (rumination);
6. Philosophical mapping;
7. Inner conversation with a text;
8. Free-floating reading;
9. Guided philosophical imagery.
(Lahav 2018,2021)

Religions 2022,13, 364 10 of 22
Table 2. Cont.
Names of Practices Conditions/Subcategories/Stages/Steps Main Sources/Authors
Bibliotherapy
1. Visitors read the appropriate philosophical texts (e.g.,
Nicomachean Ethics,Bhagavad Gita,I Ching, and Tao Te Ching);
2. Visitors discuss their resulting ideas with the
philosophical counselors.
(Marinoff 1999,2002)
Zen Arts
1. Aikido, Judo, Kendo, and Kyodo (the way of the samurai);
2. Calligraphy and poetry (language power);
3. Rock gardens and flower arranging (sacred spaces);
4. Tea ceremonies (freeing the senses to awaken the spirits).
(Baggott 2005)
Notably, through conducting psychological and spiritual measures in conjunction
with functional connectivity analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
in 14 individuals prior to and following shortly after their participation in a one-week
spiritual retreat of St. Ignatius, which utilizes a variety of elements, including living in
silence, performing prayer and meditation, and personal reflection, Wintering et al. (2020)
observed significant changes in brain functional connectivity, particularly in the posterior
cingulate cortex, pallidum, superior frontal lobe, superior parietal lobe, superior and
inferior temporal lobe, and the cerebellum. However, it should be emphasized that the
effects of meditation and Zen arts (see Table 2) are controversial. Although Tang et al. (2015)
propose that the mechanism through which mindfulness meditation exerts its effects is a
process of enhanced self-regulation, including attention control, emotion regulation, and
self-awareness, they also point out that research on mindfulness meditation faces a number
of important challenges in study design that limit the interpretation of existing studies.
3.2. Characteristics of Spiritual Exercises in Philosophical Practice
In philosophical practice, spirituality means attaining a life in accordance with one’s
ideas. For Hadot, a spiritual exercise is a practice, a common action that is in correspondence
with an idea. In his opinion, “what’s interesting about the idea of spiritual exercises is
precisely that it is not a matter of a purely rational consideration, but the putting in action
of all kinds of means, intended to act upon one’s self. Imagination and affectivity play a
capital role here: we must represent to ourselves in vivid colors the dangers of such-and-
such a passion, and use striking formulations of ideas in order to exhort ourselves. We
must also create habits, and fortify ourselves by preparing ourselves against hardships in
advance” (Hadot 1995, p. 284). Through practicing and exercising these techniques and
learning to see things “from above”, rational knowledge may become force and will and
thereby become extremely efficacious against passion, especially in crisis situations (Hadot
1995, p. 284).
To identify philosophical practice as spiritual exercises in the broad sense and also
in the narrow sense, and to distinguish a “philosophical” way of life from a life guided
by religion, tradition, or some other source alone (Grimm and Cohoe 2021), the following
three characteristics of philosophical practice should be noticed, which guarantee that
the spiritual exercises therein are philosophical fundamentally, although a philosophical
practice does not have to possess all the three characteristics at the same time.
3.2.1. Truth-Orientation
Lahav (2006) maintains that Plato’s cave allegory is a wonderful metaphor for philo-
sophical practice, according to which most of us live like cave-dwellers who can see only
the shadows displayed on the wall and believe that the shadows are reality itself. However,
the philosophers attempt to help “modern cave-dwellers” like us transcend the realm of
shadows and arouse in their hearts new yearnings: to get out of the cave and get closer to
the light, which for Plato is the Beautiful, the True, and the Real. This platonic vision of

Religions 2022,13, 364 11 of 22
philosophical practice claims that the power that compels the cave-dwellers to turn around
and see the fire behind their back, or even to get out of the cave and see the sun, is the
Platonic Eros: a yearning to encounter the Real, to achieve a more truthful understanding
of reality (Lahav 2006).
Grimm and Cohoe (2021) emphasize the distinction between spiritual exercises that
are truth-directed and those that are not and claim that only those exercises that are
truth-directed would then count as exercises that work in tandem with reason, while
philosophical practice hence can only be regarded as spiritual exercises in this strict sense.
We have listed different practices of spiritual exercises in philosophical practice in Table 2,
but whether they are genuinely philosophical or not could be questionable, the answer to
which actually depends on the nature of these practices. Grimm and Cohoe (2021) provide
an example of playing violent video games, which would count as a spiritual exercise in a
broad sense because it would shape the way the various parts of the soul interact with one
another (e.g., feeding our anger or impulsiveness), but it would not be a spiritual exercise
in the strict sense because it would be a non-truth-directed spiritual exercise: it would
prompt us to see things that are not there or to fail to see things that are there. To sum up,
the non-truth-directed spiritual exercises promote value illusions, while the truth-directed
spiritual exercises help promote value fidelity and help us see and evaluate things as they
really are (Grimm and Cohoe 2021).
Therefore, when considering whether any practice such as Philosophical Café, Philo-
sophical walk, Meditation, Philosophical Contemplation, Bibliotherapy, or Zen Arts, can
count as spiritual exercises in this strict sense, we could therefore investigate whether
this practice is reliably truth-directed and if the answer is Yes, then we should be open-
minded about what counts and what does not (Grimm and Cohoe 2021). More specifically,
Grimm and Cohoe (2021)
further indicate that not only philosophical practice as spiritual
exercises arouses in our hearts the yearning for truth but also allows us to assimilate what
we have already judged true and practice applying it in different ways and in different con-
texts so that our grasp of practical truths becomes more firm and lasting, and philosophical
practice would help to ensure that the knowledge yielded by reason is not just superficial
knowledge, but knowledge “in the bones”, as noted by Aristotle.
3.2.2. Wisdom-Orientation
For Pierre Hadot, the goal of philosophical practice as spiritual exercises is wisdom
itself, and genuine wisdom will not only lead people to truth and knowledge but also help
people see the world and exist in the world in a different way. Hadot’s study of Hellenistic
and Roman thoughts brought the practical wisdom of ancient philosophy back to the
forefront of the modern world’s attention, and Hadot himself thus became an inspirational
mentor to many subsequent philosophical practitioners. Davidson (1990) further holds
that while spiritual progress of philosophy towards wisdom brings about tranquility of
the soul, self-sufficiency, and cosmic consciousness, these three goals of the philosophical
way of life all require the practice of spiritual exercises of self-transformation in order to
be attained: tranquility of the soul (ataraxia) results from the philosophical therapeutics
intended to cure anxiety; self-sufficiency (autarkeia), the state in which the self depends
only on itself, demands a methodical transformation of oneself; cosmic consciousness is a
kind of spiritual surpassing of oneself that requires a consciousness of being part of the
cosmic whole.
Interestingly, in a philosophical walk at Nanjing University Campus, on 25 May 2013, a
quotation from Bhagavad Gita, “The wise sees knowledge and action as one. They see truly”,
was conceptualized as “Wisdom”, and the reflection and narrative abstraction during the
group discussion clearly exhibited wisdom as a practice, a way of life (Harteloh 2021).
Besides walking, by analyzing Phaedrus and The Seventh Letter, in which Plato quotes writing
and its relation to philosophical thoughts, and by using the research by Michel Foucault
and Pierre Hadot, who relate ancient philosophy to the concept of spiritual exercises in
which writing is inserted, Medeiros and Araújo (2020) prove the positive role for writing

Religions 2022,13, 364 12 of 22
within the philosophical experience, i.e., a spiritual exercise as a didactic instrument in
philosophy class that leads the students to a dialogue in which the teaching of philosophy
is presented as a concept workshop.
It is noteworthy that some philosophical practitioners oppose any external utilitarian
goal requirements for philosophical practice. Staude (2015) argues that philosophical prac-
tice is neither a therapy nor an applied philosophy. In his view, as Aristotle distinguishes
between praxis and poiesis, philosophical practice is a practical wisdom (phronesis) rather
than a technique (techne), and therefore philosophical practice as a mind-opening dialogue
cannot be aimed at any particular outcome. Nevertheless, Staude (2015) acknowledges
that philosophical practice has a power that makes it potentially therapeutic and that
the reflections, questions, and perspectives in the process of philosophical practice can
have an impact on visitors and their daily lives, allowing them to gain vivification and
inner freedom.
As the founder of philosophical practice in Europe, Achenbach (1998) believes that the
goal of philosophical practice is to make the visitors wise and that the role of philosophical
analysis in counseling is to open the visitors’ eyes to the field of meaning that constitutes our
practical reality and contains all things. Similarly, Lahav (2001) asserts that philosophical
counseling is a private journey through the world of ideas with the goal of wisdom, which
addresses the original ancient Greek meaning of the word “philosophy” (philo-sophia):
love of wisdom. However, in the current technological, utilitarian, comfort-seeking, and
self-centered era, the ancient pursuit of wisdom has been almost completely forgotten.
Although Lahav (2001) initially believed that the goal of philosophical counseling was
to help visitors interpret and examine their worldviews, to help visitors develop a richer
philosophical understanding of the self and the external world, and to empower visitors to
better cope with the particular personal crises that beset them at the moment, philosophical
counseling in this understanding failed to realize the full potential of philosophizing
in people’s lives. This approach to philosophical counseling is limited to exploring the
visitors’ own philosophy of life, focusing only on the visitors’ specific attitudes and not
going beyond the realm of the visitors’ real life. Thus, the philosophical counselors fail to
develop new perspectives, concepts, and meanings for the visitors and also fail to help the
visitors transcend their previous ways of being. Essentially, philosophical practice aims at
broadening and deepening the visitors’ life, not just helping them solve particular problems.
In Lahav’s view, wisdom means being open to a broader world rather than being
limited to a narrow self. Wisdom is not a tool to help us analyze, simplify, and solve prob-
lems; rather, wisdom allows us to see the complexity of human reality and its diversity of
meanings, aspects, and perspectives, which are the sources of wisdom’s appeal, but which
also lead to the difficulty of practicing wisdom (Lahav 2006). The goal of philosophical
practice is to create in visitors a desire for wisdom and move them beyond their limited
and superficial self-understanding, concerns, and desires. The essence of philosophical
practice thus lies in revealing the conceptual basis of the world: the various meanings and
the true meaning of concepts about freedom, self, sin, success, value, truth, and wisdom
(
Lahav 2001
). Therefore, wise men must consider the world to be rich in meaning, or
in other words, they interpret their worlds as rich, well-developed networks of what is
important, brave, interesting, false, mediocre, and cowardly, of the value in our various
experiences and where we stand in the world, of the ethical and aesthetic implications of
our actions, and of how these issues are interrelated with each other. Such enrichment
and development of worldview interpretations are intrinsically valuable, even if they may
sometimes not actually address the specific problems that people are concerned with. In
short, philosophical practice seeks to develop and refine people’s philosophical sensitivity
through dialogues about the meanings of everyday life, which can have a variety of thera-
peutic effects and empower people to cope with their personal crises. However, under this
interpretation, the ultimate goal of philosophical counseling is fostering wisdom, while the
therapeutic effects are only bonuses (Lahav 2001).

Religions 2022,13, 364 13 of 22
In Chinese philosophy, Taoism is significantly characterized by its wisdom-orientation,
especially its focus on wisdom in dealing with one’s relationship with heaven, with things,
with other people, and with oneself. The spirit of Taoist life wisdom is higher than that of
Confucianism and deeper than that of Mohism because it can provide solid ontological
support for the handling of interpersonal relationships (Liu and Zhang 2014). The basic
spirit of naturalism runs through the unfolding of the concept of life from the beginning
to the end, and the first basic view of Taoist wisdom of life is to follow nature and return
to the basics. In the eyes of Lao Tzu, “man patterns himself on the operation of the earth;
the earth patterns itself on the operation of heaven; heaven patterns itself on the operation
of Dao; Dao patterns itself on what is natural
人法地
,
地法天
,
天法道
,
道法自然
” (Lao Tzu,
chp. 25). Taoism believes that all things can develop naturally under the fundamental
principle of the existence of all things, i.e., Dao, and “Dao always makes all things possible
through non-interference with them
道常無為
,
而無不為
” (Lao Tzu, chp. 37). In Taoism,
“Non-Action
無為
” does not mean doing nothing but means not interfering unnecessarily
with the natural development of things, which is actually a wiser way of getting things
done efficiently.
Notably, wisdom as a process is encountered remarkably in Eastern philosophy (e.g.,
the wheel of wisdom in Indian philosophy), while wisdom as a product is a usual interpre-
tation in Western philosophy. Gerald Rochelle, on the other hand, argues that wisdom is
present in every human being but each person realizes it to a different degree during his or
her lifetime; thus, wisdom is a process rather than a product, and it is a transaction rather
than an acquisition (Rochelle 2008). The realization of wisdom depends on one’s daily
lives, on others, on the world, and on any other things that make up one’s worldviews. In
the pursuit of wisdom, we should be concerned with the process that leads us towards
wisdom, not just with obtaining wisdom and knowing its particular nature.
The realization of wisdom is also a Sisyphean never-ending task, and what the task
itself may bring us is not what we should focus on; it is our active engagement with the
world during fulfilling this task that is more important to us. The pursuit of wisdom is
a process that allows people to let go of the stereotypes and dogmas that have become
obstacles in their lives so that they can become more in tune with the world. That is to say,
the openness of mind is essential to the pursuit of wisdom, and the state of mind-openness
is about being ready for change. We must be open to creative novelties, ready to respond to
them freely and meaningfully, without which we can get nowhere. Through the practice of
wisdom in philosophical practice, we will learn how to make good judgments and what it
really means for us to lead a good, meaningful life.
3.2.3. Virtue-Orientation
Virtues play an important role in the process of pursuing truth and wisdom in Eastern
and Western philosophy. Yu (2020) explores the concept of skill in Zhuangzi (Ji
技
) and
Stoicism (techne) and argues that for both Zhuangzi and the Stoics, by manifesting Dao
道
(or logos) and cultivating virtue, skillful activity can be taken as the spiritual exercise to
nourish the art of living through the practice of professional skills, which makes life a good
flow, i.e., spiritual satisfaction or happiness.
Following Hadot (1995), Grimm and Cohoe (2021) consider spiritual exercises an
important part of the ancient conception of philosophy as a way of life, which retains its
usefulness in contemporary society as a way of anchoring value judgments in the soul and
dispelling value illusions. Bendik-Keymer (2009) presents a sample spiritual exercise, a
contemporary form of the written practice that ancient philosophers used to examine their
consciences and shape their characters (Hadot 1995,2002), concluding that through the
form of questioning, which allows us to distinguish the point of reflection from effects of
reflection and a manner of writing from a manner of reading, spiritual exercises aim to
create a habit of thoughtfulness in the writer, and then by way of teaching, to suggest one
to the reader. Such a habit is of great importance because virtue is a habit, and there can be
no learning of virtue itself without habituation into it (Bendik-Keymer 2009).

Religions 2022,13, 364 14 of 22
According to Tukiainen (2010), a wise person must know many things: first and
foremost, the goals and values of life, and when and how to satisfactorily achieve those
important goals in life. In his view, to gain wisdom, one must know how to live well, and
living well depends primarily on virtue; therefore, virtue is the essence of wisdom, and
philosophical counseling is also a process of cultivating virtue. Virtue is related to self-
understanding, and Tukiainen (2010) distinguishes between cognitive virtue and practical
virtue, although the two are not completely distinct from each other. The cognitive virtues
include self-knowledge, which is important for people to be aware of and pursue their goals
and understand their emotions. One’s knowledge of the external world can also be seen as
a virtue that enables one to lead a satisfying and morally acceptable life. This knowledge is
so important that we must rely on it if we want to be successful in our actions because when
we make decisions, we must take into account the value, feasibility, and appropriateness of
all possible actions; this ability of deliberation is subject to the knowledge of oneself and of
the external world (Tukiainen 2010).
In Tukiainen’s view, to remain open to new ways of knowing oneself and the world is
a cognitive virtue because sometimes we need to adopt a new perspective that is completely
different from what we had before; such a change may cause us to evaluate our situations
quite differently, and our emotions and behaviors may be affected by it (Tukiainen 2010).
The practical virtue with objectivity, on the other hand, means distancing oneself from
immediate emotions, viewing them in relation to human life, and viewing them from the
perspective of the surrounding environment and the wider world, thus avoiding making
decisions that one would regret in the future in an overly egotistical and overly emotional
situation (Šulavíková2014).
Similarly, Amir (2006) sees the mission of philosophical counseling as having three
components: first, it is to enhance the visitors’ ability to think abstractly in different
directions between the abstract and the concrete; second, it is to enhance the intellectual
virtues of the visitors in order ultimately to deepen their intellectual courage and autonomy,
because the nature of philosophy is embodied in intellectual virtues, and the visitors
need to learn to accept different points of view and develop virtues such as impartiality,
critical evaluation of different opinions, mental clarity and independence, and intellectual
courage including perseverance and determination; finally, philosophical counseling fosters
moral virtues in its visitors, with the ultimate goal of promoting and cultivating those
thoughts and emotions that we must have in order to attain the wisdom that fosters and
promotes inclusiveness and solidarity in dealing with others. Amir (2006) believes that an
important goal of philosophical counseling is to strengthen the autonomy of the visitors,
where autonomy means relying on the power of the individual to choose among different
opinions and to form one’s own. The concept of autonomy is closely associated with virtues
such as courage and humility and highlights the connection between the cognitive process,
which presupposes the existence of a mental capacity to judge whether someone can make
a better judgment than we can, and the volitional process, which presupposes the existence
of a capacity to control people’s emotions, and it is just these emotions that prevent many
useful skills from being applied efficiently in people’s life (Amir 2006).
Notably, Fleming (2000) lists a series of virtues that he believes will be useful for both
philosophical counselors and the visitors, such as courage, moral and psychological stability
(or equilibrium), listening, patience, humility, timing, irony and humor (especially the
ability to laugh at oneself, and not take oneself too seriously), and warmth and friendliness;
in addition, there are other virtues that may be equally important, such as honesty, sincerity,
empathy, non-judgmental acceptance, authenticity, epoche (i.e., suspension of judgement),
moderation (sophrosyne), equanimity (ataraxia), confrontation (agon), self-confidence,
creativity, spontaneity, and wisdom.
Although virtue is insufficient for the achievement of happiness, it enhances the
likelihood of an acceptable or even satisfying life. Philosophical practice is essential to
highlight the role of virtue in leading people to a philosophical way of life. Although
philosophical practitioners should do their best to take an unbiased and value-neutral

Religions 2022,13, 364 15 of 22
position, they should also be capable of counseling the visitors from a “wise” point of view
for their information and also be aware of the virtues that the visitors should be encouraged
to pursue and explore. If the visitors wish to use these virtues to help them gain inner
peace, they should then place higher weights on these virtues.
In short, virtues enable people to better deal with the present and future crises in their
lives. Although the value-neutral philosophical practitioners usually do not compel the
visitors to act in accordance with moral norms as the moral preachers normally do, the
process of philosophical practice is likely to lead to a deep understanding of virtue, a strong
desire for it, and ultimately its practice, which makes philosophical practice a promising
way of moral education. As the philosophical practitioners guide the visitors to reveal and
justify their doxastic presuppositions, the visitors may discover the hidden contradictions
or conflicts in their belief systems. In this way, a rational person should understand that
the concerned contradictions or conflicts should be eliminated by revising some of their
beliefs or behaviors accordingly.
4. Discussion
We thus interpreted philosophical practice as a kind of spiritual exercise that aims at
truth, wisdom, and virtue. Since the first institution of philosophical practice was founded
in Germany in 1981, philosophical practice in the contemporary sense has already become a
new frontier in philosophical research, which is manifested by the emergence of recognized
philosophical practitioners, representative philosophical practice theories and methods,
specialized philosophical practice academic organizations, journals, conferences, college
education, and professional training (Harteloh 2013b). On the theoretical side, philosophical
practice research generally contains six aspects: first, the historical intellectual resources of
philosophical practice, such as the practical wisdom in Eastern and Western philosophy;
second, the definition of concepts related to philosophical practice, such as philosophical
counseling, philosophical therapy, academic philosophy, and philosophical pedagogy; third,
the goals and roles of philosophical practice; fourth, the relationship between philosophical
practice and other helping disciplines or professions such as psychological counseling and
therapy; fifth, different methods and modes of philosophical practice (see Table 1); sixth, the
entry requirements, training methods, curriculum planning, and value norms and ethical
codes for the philosophical practitioners.
While considering philosophical practice as spiritual exercises, Hadot (1995,2002)
generally mentions four kinds of exercises: reading, writing, and learning to live and die. It
is noteworthy that, on the one hand, reading refers not only to the act of reading texts but
also to reading life as such, and the reading of texts is an exercise for reading life; on the
other hand, writing refers not only to the writing of essays but also to writing the story of
one’s own life. Cooper (2007,2012) seems to miss this metaphorical point. Nevertheless,
we acknowledge that Cooper’s criticism against Hadot actually has its points, and to
avoid the possible confusion and controversy, we need to identify philosophical practice
as spiritual exercises in the broad sense and also in the narrow sense and to distinguish a
“philosophical” way of life from a life guided by religion, tradition, or some other source
alone (Grimm and Cohoe 2021). Nevertheless, a philosophical way of life can merge with a
life according to religion and tradition. For instance, it is proposed by Desiderius Erasmus
of Rotterdam that the true Christian lives according to the example of Jesus Christ through
reading the story of the Christ in the holy scriptures (Erasmus 2019), which is different
from the religious life that is full of practices, ceremonies, traditions, and conceptions,
from which the “Spirit” seems to have departed (Huizinga [1924] 1957). Consequently,
we further described three characteristics of philosophical practice (i.e., truth-orientation,
wisdom-orientation, and virtue-orientation) that would guarantee the philosophical nature
of the spiritual exercises therein. We also want to remind the readers that we never claim
that a philosophical practice has to possess all three characteristics simultaneously, but
generally, in order to maintain the philosophical spirit of the practices, they should be
directed to either truth, wisdom, or virtue.

Religions 2022,13, 364 16 of 22
It needs to be clarified that when identifying philosophical practice as spiritual exer-
cises in the narrow sense, we are actually defining philosophy as a career pursuing truth,
wisdom, and virtue. To this extent, all philosophical practices are, in essence, spiritual
exercises in that they possess at least one of the three characteristics. But this position
may be challenged because people could have different ideas about what philosophical
practice is and, more controversially, about what philosophy is. Etymologically speaking,
“philosophy” comes from the Greek word “philosophia”, which means “love of wisdom”.
Therefore, the wisdom-orientation of philosophy is generally acceptable for most philoso-
phers (Cooper 2012;Hadot 1995). However, when speaking of truth and virtue, the situation
is more complicated. Some philosophy is generally not truth-oriented (e.g., Confucianism
and Taoism) or virtue-oriented (e.g., phenomenology and analytic philosophy). Therefore,
when we identify philosophical practice as spiritual exercises in the narrow sense, we are
also interpreting philosophy and philosophical practice in the broad sense, while there
of course can be different interpretations of philosophy and philosophical practice. In
the meantime, according to our interpretation of philosophy and philosophical practice,
a spiritual exercise can be regarded as philosophical practice only if at least one of the
three characteristics is satisfied; otherwise, there will be no philosophical elements in this
exercise, and it may even go to the opposite of philosophy.
It should also be emphasized that when speaking of the truth, wisdom and virtue
orientations of spiritual exercises in philosophical practice, we need to understand these
theoretical terms in the context of philosophical practice, that is to say, how they are
developed in real life. For example, the correspondence theory of truth states that the truth
or falsity of a sentence or proposition is determined only by how it correlates to worldly
elements (e.g., facts, states of affairs, conditions, events, objects, properties) and those
worldly elements must be related in the way the sentence or proposition represents them as
being related (Mcgrath 2004). Rather, truth in philosophical practice means living according
to one’s (personal) principles, emphasizing the consistency between one’s words (thoughts,
theories, attitudes, etc.) and deeds. Thus, philosophical practitioners should do what
they say and say what they do, which is a tension frequently discussed in philosophical
counseling. Philosophical practice can also contribute to the enhancement of one’s wisdom
and virtue in a similar way: through practicing and testing one’s theories and thoughts in
life, and at the same time by forming or revising one’s theories and thoughts according to
the observation and practice results in life, philosophical practice can help to deepen one’s
understanding and application of wisdom and virtue in a remarkable way.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that, in the opinion of Quine (1981), revelatory and
didactic writing, while appreciated, should be found in fiction, poetry, sermons, or literature;
professional philosophers are not particularly well-positioned to help stabilize society,
although we (as philosophers) should do what we can, and the only thing that can meet
these continuing pressing needs may be wisdom: sophia can, but philosophy (philosophia)
does not. In other words, Quine argues that philosophy does not necessarily have a unique
role to play in improving social situations and solving social issues, but wisdom does
have its role to play here. Quine is referring to social issues, but his conclusion seems to
apply to personal issues as well. Philosophy and wisdom have crucial differences, and
a philosopher who has a lot of philosophical knowledge does not necessarily have the
corresponding degree of wisdom. Knowledge can be taught, but wisdom cannot. It is for
this reason that we criticize the phenomenon that some philosophical practitioners intend
to dogmatically use philosophical doctrines to deal with the visitors’ issues. Instead, we
advocate the pursuit and enlightenment of wisdom and insights. As Confucius has said
in the chapter “Zihan” of The Analects
論語·子罕
, “The wise are free from perplexities
知
者不惑
”. Therefore, in Confucius’s view, a mature and wise person will not be wavering
in his mind or be confused by external things (Ding et al. 2019). If the visitors’ wisdom is
enhanced, they will certainly be able to respond more thoughtfully and insightfully to the
issues that may occur in their future life.

Religions 2022,13, 364 17 of 22
However, it is unrealistic to expect that a philosophical counselor can mold a visitor
into a virtuous person through just a few dialogues. The development of virtues depends
both on the guidance of the philosophical counselor and also on the openness of the visitor’s
mind and his or her practice of the relevant virtues in real life because, during philosophical
counseling, the visitors can usually acquire just a partial understanding of the virtues.
However, it is another matter whether they can act in accordance with the standards and
requirements of the virtues in their real life. Nevertheless, when the dialogue between the
philosophical counselor and the visitor focuses on universal virtues, the specific issues that
the visitor encounters in real life become less salient and disturbing in the moment. By
shifting the subject of the dialogue from the specific issue the visitor is facing to the broad
topic of “virtue”, philosophical counseling enables the visitor to see the specific personal
issue he or she wants to deal with from a new and higher level of perspective.
As to philosophical practice in the history of Chinese philosophy, it is important to
note that, according to Wang Yangming
王陽明
, a great Confucianist in the Ming dynasty
of ancient China, “There is no one who knows the truth but does not act on it. If you
know the truth but do not practice it in your daily life, then this is equal to saying that
you do not know it at all” (Wang 1992). That is to say, a person is only considered to have
understood the meaning and implications of a virtue if he or she is actually practicing it
in action. Wang Yangming’s above-mentioned principle of the “unity of knowledge and
action
知行合一
”, which shares the spirit of Hadot’s conception of “philosophy as a way
of life”, is deeply rooted in the history of Chinese philosophy, with Chuang Tzu as one
of the most influential representatives. On the one hand, Chuang Tzu refused to be the
Prime Minister of the state of Chu
楚
so as to practice his creed of life and pursue spiritual
freedom (Chuang Tzu, Outer Chapters: Autumn Floods
莊子·外篇·秋水
); on the other hand,
Chuang Tzu was seen sitting on the ground and singing a song while rhythmically tapping
the tiled basin when his wife died, regarding the circle of life and death as the same as the
natural operation of four seasons (Chuang Tzu, Outer Chapters: Perfect Happiness
莊子·外
篇·至樂
). Chuang Tzu’s open-minded attitude towards fame and death is obviously an
excellent example of showing how wisdom can contribute to our “perfect happiness” in
life (Liu and Zhang 2014).
Just as Bendik-Keymer (2009) has argued, virtue is a habit, and there can be no learning
of virtue itself without habituation into it. Many people may be able to recognize the
goodness of a virtue, but one cannot truly comprehend a virtue without one’s own relevant
practice experiences or making this virtuous behavior a habit. The philosophical counselors
are not lobbyists who stand on the moral high ground; their roles are simply to help the
visitors sort out and examine their beliefs and attitudes. The philosophical counselors may
also not have an exact answer to the question “What is virtue?”, but they can help the
visitors explore virtue through a series of questions in their dialogues. By questioning and
interrogating the visitors’ beliefs and attitudes, the philosophical counselors challenge and
possibly revise the visitors’ views of virtue. In this way, visitors will be able to benefit from
this virtue and see the stresses, conflicts, and failures they encounter in their life courses as
opportunities to develop, test, and exercise their moral characters, and thus they will be
more likely to acquire and realize the virtue through philosophical counseling ultimately.
With regard to the possible application fields of philosophical practice, as far as we
can see, firstly, philosophical practice could be a professional technique to help the visitors
tide over the most difficult phases in their life, obtaining the wisdom and courage to move
forward, e.g., in the post-COVID-19 era (Damianos and Damianou 2020;Feary 2014,2020;
Lindseth 2012;Munroe 2020;Repetti 2020). Although many philosophers have started their
careers as counselors, of course within the legal and appropriate scope of practice, only a
few of them truly hold philosophical practice as a full-time job. With more people knowing
and recognizing the usefulness of philosophical practice, we are looking forward to seeing
more and more full-time philosophical practitioners who can earn a living by providing
people with the needed service.

Religions 2022,13, 364 18 of 22
Secondly, philosophical practice could be utilized as an instrument to coordinate
interpersonal, interorganizational, and even international relations. There are cognitive or
affective conflicts among different people or different groups now and then. Traditional
philosophy has already discussed a lot on dealing with these sorts of relations and conflicts,
and the contemporary philosophical practice can contribute to advance further the relevant
theories and practices (Ha
t
,
egan 2019,2021). Lou Marinoff is an important pioneer in this
aspect (Ikeda and Marinoff 2012;Marinoff 2017b), who excavates the cavernous philosophi-
cal foundations of war and peace (Marinoff 2019), and applies the virtue ethics of Aristotle,
Buddha, and Confucius to harmonize extremes that are tearing humanity apart: political,
religious, economic, educational, social, and sexual (Marinoff 2020).
Finally, philosophical practice could be used as an effective means of training and
enhancing people’s philosophical thinking. In the 21st century, if you want to get in-
volved with the world and not be sifted out by the times and society, you have to har-
bor the ability of philosophizing, e.g., deepening, conceptualizing, problematizing, and
questioning (
Brenifier 2020
). It is noteworthy that Brenifier now calls problematizing as
criticizing, which is more neutral to the visitors’ theme and not necessarily labeling it as
a problem. Furthermore, although it is not necessary or possible to turn everyone into a
philosopher, philosophical practice is undoubtedly beneficial to children’s moral and intel-
lectual development and also to people’s self-awareness, self-regulation, self-fulfillment,
self-transcendence, and interpersonal relationships in general (Cohen 2013;Ding 2016;
Lahav 2006).
5. Conclusions
Through manifesting that philosophical practice has already become a new frontier
in philosophical research and a new profession in society, we have highlighted that philo-
sophical practice as spiritual exercises in the broad sense is not limited to religion and
tradition. In contrast, philosophical practice as spiritual exercises in the narrow sense is
still constrained to the exercises of reason and logos, which distinguishes it from particular
spiritual exercises that are common in religion, although certain kinds of religious exercises
such as Zen arts and mindfulness meditation could constitute an important part of philo-
sophical practice. After defending Pierre Hadot’s conceptions of spiritual exercises and
philosophy as a way of life, we further propose that in the light of the distinct plurality of
the methods and modes of philosophical practice and the spiritual exercises involved, and
through maintaining the dynamic relationship between one’s words (thoughts, theories,
attitudes, etc.) and deeds, philosophical practice can be considered as a meaningful and
applicable approach to pursuing truth, wisdom, and virtue.
We also discuss the promising future and possible application fields of philosophical
practice. Overall, although philosophers may focus on the theoretical or practical aspects
of philosophy differently, all of them can contribute to and benefit a lot from philosophical
practice. Just as Socrates has proverbially claimed, the unexamined life is not worth
living. Philosophical practitioners help people examine their beliefs, guiding them out
of Plato’s cave and leading them to reliable ways to happiness. With such exciting and
appealing prospects, philosophical practice could hopefully grow into a daily necessity in
people’s lives.
Author Contributions:
Conceptualization, X.D.; writing—original draft preparation, X.D.; writing—
review and editing, F.Y.; funding acquisition, X.D. and F.Y. All authors have read and agreed to the
published version of the manuscript.
Funding:
This research was funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grants No.
20CZX059 and No. 20FZXB047).
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.

Religions 2022,13, 364 19 of 22
Acknowledgments:
We would like to especially thank the anonymous reviewers of the journal
Religions for their detailed comments and inspiring suggestions, which have refreshed and improved
our paper remarkably.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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