Wittgensteins Private Language Argument: Fayaz Ahmad Sofi Priyavrat Shukla

to the critical thinking approach, aims at understanding the depth of life. ‗It's main task is not to analyze the ideas, but to finish them for a deeper understanding of life‘. (Valentinovich 2018:151

Also, philosophical counseling and philosophical companionship are two kinds of philosophical practices which happen in the form of individual or group work. It is assumed that philosophical counseling is similar to an existential form of psychotherapy where counselors through counseling understand the structure and existential questions of the individual. It tries to understand an individual‘s ontological ideas and worldview. On the other hand, philosophical companionship is another form of philosophical practice where individuals are engaged in understanding different ideas and concepts of life through phenomenological reduction3 and philosophical contemplation. Similarly, Socratic Cafe is another group of philosophical companionship founded by Christopher Phillips where people meet and exchange their philosophical perspectives through the Socratic method.

Talking about its therapeutic approach, philosophical practice mainly focuses on solving psychological problems. Through systematization and generalization of the problem, it helps to resolve the interlocutor‘s problem. This approach allows us to understand the synthesis of psychotherapy and philosophical practices. Nussbaum‘s conception of philosophy as therapy is based on the belief that philosophy should not simply focus on cognitive problems, rather also on emotive as well as conative problems. It should focus on irrational fears, invalid conclusions, and misguided assumptions of life. She says that a good life cannot be based on reasons only, rather it is one‘s emotions and actions that constitute a good life. (Sulavikova 2012:134).

4. AN ALTERNATIVE TO PSYCHOLOGY OR PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC APPROACHES?

It is difficult to explain the exact difference between philosophical practice and psychotherapy as not only do both fields have different sources and methodologies but, unlike psychology, philosophical practice doesn't have a single unified approach. However, some European philosophical practitioners have made attempts to distinguish these two fields. According to them, theories of psychotherapy are based on the scientific workings of the mind (cognitive, emotive, and conative aspects). Their intervention of seeing individuals is on the parameter of psychological factors, whereas philosophical practitioner inquiry is based on understanding the worldview of an individual. This worldview involves the very basic idea about life, morality, happiness, sorrow, integrity, etc. However, certain human problems can‘t be addressed by philosophical practice, for example, different cognitive disorders and mood disorders. These disorders require medication and psychological counseling. While philosophical

3 Derived from the philosophical traditions of phenomenology and phenomenological psychology, for the study of firstperson experiences of consciousness (For details see, Depraz, N. (1999). The phenomenological reduction as praxis. Journal of Consciousness Studies)

practice may assist persons with such disorders after or in addition to psychological treatment, it cannot serve as a replacement or substitute for the latter in such instances. As a result, philosophical practitioners must establish support and referral networks with psychological counselors as part of their practices.

5. PHILOSOPHICAL SELF-INVESTIGATION TO PHILOSOPHICAL SELF-

UNDERSTANDING

Philosophizing different underlying concepts and hidden assumptions help an individual in selfunderstanding. This philosophical self-investigation examines an individual‘s conscious thoughts, unconscious beliefs, and lives to understand life. Several philosophical practitioners have proposed that investigating conscious thoughts is concerned with those thoughts and opinions of the interlocutor which he/she expresses explicitly. However, this approach seems unsatisfactory as the thoughts and predicaments that an individual goes through daily are not just conscious thoughts. It involves emotions, desires, fantasies, hopes, etc. Thus, this approach restrains philosophical self-investigation completely. Another alternative for carrying out philosophical self-investigation is investigating unconscious beliefs. Through rational thinking tools, philosophical practitioners examine the unconscious structure of beliefs, their network, and their pattern. However, this inquiry is only limited to unconscious beliefs. It is not an overall investigation of individual thoughts as it doesn‘t include ontological and existential questions of the individual. The third approach to carry out selfinvestigation of lived understanding explores an individual‘s lived ideas of life (just not thoughts). ‗The basic idea of lived understanding is that in our everyday life we constantly interpret ourselves and the world, or in other words, we express a certain understanding of reality. Not only our thoughts but also our emotions, plans, hopes, behaviors, fantasies, choices are ways of relating to our world, that is, ways of understanding‘ (Lahav 1996: 265). This self-investigation approach examines how coherent those ideas of lived understanding are, including different hidden assumptions, values, assumptions, etc. Thus, lived understanding refers to the various meanings, implications, and logic of a person's attitudes towards life rather than conscious or unconscious beliefs.

6. CONCLUSION

With the arrival of this pandemic, we have encountered various mental illnesses all along the way leading to certain crises in our day-to-day lives. We frequently come across questions like "what am I supposed to do with this life? How should I live it? How can I live happily and content in all life situations? What is the meaning of life? What is death? What is our responsibility as a collective social being? To answer these questions, it becomes important to explore the domain of philosophical practice.

Thus, the study aims to highlight the fact that there is an urgent need to accept and adopt the method of philosophical practice as it can effectively help people to understand their everyday existential predicaments and help to transform the social system. It is important to note that philosophical practice does not talk about the study of philosophical theories, rather it deals with the practical application of situations and problems that one comes across every day while focusing on self-knowledge and selfreflectivity, thus contributing to the expansion of boundaries of individuals' worldviews.

References:

 Lahav, Ran. ―Handbook of philosophical companionships‘‘. Lulu Press, Inc, 2016.

 Jopling, David A. ―Philosophical Counselling, Truth, and Self‐Interpretation.‘‘ Journal of

Applied Philosophy 13, no. 3 (1996): 297-310.

 Lahav, Ran. "Applied phenomenology in philosophical counseling." International Journal of

Applied Philosophy 7, no. 2 (1992): 45-52.

 Lahav, Ran. "A conceptual framework for philosophical counseling: Worldview interpretation." Essays on philosophical counseling (1995): 3-24.

 Lahav, Ran. "What is philosophical in philosophical counseling?" Journal of Applied

Philosophy 13, no. 3 (1996)

 Lahav, Ran, and Maria da Venza Tillmanns, eds. ―Essays on philosophical counseling‖.

University Press of America, 1995.

 Valentinovich, Boris Sergey. "Theory and Practice of Philosophical Counseling: A

Comparative Approach." Turkish Online Journal of Design Art and Communication 8 (2018): 149-154.