Nature of Existentialism : Sami Jan 40-52

of death. philosophers in present times can understand human values and try to re-shape them. Through this, they can rediscover ideas of life for the common good of human beings.

3. PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICE: A GENERAL CHARACTERIZATION

The emergence of applied philosophy has brought philosophical practice into the limelight. It aims to deal with subjects‘ everyday predicaments, their ideas about life, career choice, mid-life crises, personal moral problems, different dilemmas, existential questions, low self-esteem, relationship issues; simply the overall notion of lived understanding. To this end, philosophical practice helps to address individuals‘ problems meaningfully by philosophizing their issues and providing epistemic justification to their ideas. It analyzes the subjects‘ worldviews and structure and logical implications of arguments. It doesn‘t provide ready-made conceptions and theories, rather it offers critical thinking tools and helps individuals to develop their self-understanding, without imposing any prejudiced solution. The idea of dealing with everyday problems philosophically is hardly new. Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Cynics, Stoics, Epicureans, etc. discussed life issues and gave concrete applications to people of how life should be lived. Thus, philosophical practice involves the restructuring of the consciousness by analyzing individual thoughts and ideas and building comprehensive framing of the individual worldview. The manifestation of beliefs and giving logical coherence to thoughts is a key principle of philosophical practice.

Philosophical practice, a relatively new field born in 1981 in Germany by Gerd b. Achenbach. From Germany has further spread to other countries such as Africa, Canada, Israel, France, UK, the USA, etc. There are now hundreds of institutions, universities, organizations associated with it. With hundreds of people involved in it, there is no single unitary approach in this, rather there are clusters of approaches. The analysis of various approaches rooted in modern philosophical practice allows us to divide them into three different groups. The first group, the problem-solving approach, aims to solve specific life problems of people. Second, the thinking skill approach aims at improving the tools for, rather than solving specific problems (Valentinovich 2018:150). Third, a development approach aims at developing self by enriching life with meaning and wisdom.

Implementation of these approaches can be divided into two groups of philosophical practices where critical thinking and the wisdom-based approach are prevalent. The critical thinking approach is based on reasoning, logical thinking, analysis of concepts and identification of hidden prerequisites, etc. It is used to understand oneself rationally and logically. Second, the wisdom-based approach, an alternative