LA PRATICA FILOSOFICA: ILLUSIONI, DEFORMAZIONI, ESERCIZI E POSSIBILITA'

Nella pratica filosofica si instaura con le persone un dialogo finalizzato allo sviluppo e al potenziamento delle capacità di pensiero, come quella della concettualizzazione, dell'interpretazione e della problematizzazione. Nel contempo ci si concentra anche sul paradigma del pensiero che è incarnato, solitamente inconsapevolmente, dal soggetto stesso e che funge da suo filtro nella relazione con gli eventi, con gli altri e con sé stesso. Durante questo processo dialogico e filosofico possono emergere resistenze emotive che spesso diventano un ostacolo nello sviluppo del dialogo e del pensiero: ecco perché queste resistenze devono essere spesso tematizzate e analizzate. Le resistenze emotive più frequenti si manifestano in relazione alla presa di coscienza di alcune caratteristiche incarnate dal soggetto e che emergono dal suo modo di pensare che trapela dalle sue stesse parole: caratteristiche che spesso non si vogliono né vedere, né accettare perché considerate troppo brutte e negative dal momento che si scontrano con l'immagine illusoria e distorta che la persona si è creata di sé proprio per sfuggire al confronto con la realtà. In realtà si tratta di una pratica piuttosto comune e diffusa tra gli esseri umani: quando ci si trova a confrontarsi con una realtà che si percepisce come inaccettabile, si tende a negarla, preferendo sostituire "ciò che è" con "ciò che si vorrebbe che fosse", o "ciò che si è" con "ciò che si vorrebbe essere". È quello che viene definito "wishful thinking", ovvero un modo di pensare che è guidato più che altro dalle emozioni, dalle paure e dai desideri e che tende a deformare continuamente la realtà. Questo spiega perché il soggetto preferisce considerarsi un "grande lavoratore" piuttosto che un "avido", o un "generoso" invece di un "egoista", oppure un "pigro" piuttosto che un "impotente", oppure ancora una persona "ribelle" invece di una persona "terrorizzata". Ecco come, a partire dal dialogo, tendono ad emergere diversi conflitti presenti nella persona, come quello esistente tra il "sé reale" e il "sé ideale", o tra la dimensione razionale e quella emotiva, o tra il livello delle azioni e quello delle intenzioni; conflitti che, soprattutto quando non vengono tematizzati, tendono a generare ansia, frustrazione e dissonanza cognitiva, tutti stati emotivi e cognitivi che il soggetto spesso cerca di superare (solitamente senza successo) attraverso la manipolazione, la deformazione, la menzogna, la repressione, la negazione, la compensazione oppure attraverso la costruzione e l'utilizzo di maschere truccate, di falsi miti e di scintillanti illusioni che hanno lo scopo di accecare non solo gli altri, ma ancor di più sé stessi. E rispetto a tutto ciò la pratica filosofica di ispirazione socratica si propone, attraverso il dialogo, di aumentare la consapevolezza del soggetto non solo rispetto ai conflitti in atto, ma anche rispetto alle difficoltà e ai problemi vissuti e che spesso derivano da forme di pensiero rigide, incoerenti o assolutistiche. Attraverso diversi esercizi di pensiero, inoltre, la pratica offre una spazio di libertà, di distacco da sé e di gioia in cui la persona si conquista la possibilità di pensare altrimenti, assaporando il brivido di adottare temporaneamente altre prospettive, nonché la vertigine di sperimentare altre visioni del mondo prese in prestito da quel prezioso e inesauribile bacino di idee che più comunemente e semplicemente chiamiamo "storia della filosofia".

Conoscersi e morire

Quando la maschera penetra nella pelle diventa parte del volto: testa e maschera diventano così parti di un'unica sostanza. A questo punto la separazione della maschera dal volto assume il senso di una decapitazione e la fine della finzione assume i contorni di una piccola morte: per essere pronti a conoscere se stessi, dunque, bisogna essere pronti a morire.

A world of snipers

The world is full of snipers which means it is full of people hiding in the shadows but ready to shoot at those who expose themselves. The haters are virtual snipers who shoot without showing themselves. And since there are a lot of repressed people around, even the web is full of haters: people who need to vent their personal frustrations through virtual violence, convenient and immediate; today, in fact, to hurt others is easy and comfortable: often just one click is enough.

A crazy and emotional ship

There is a ship full of passengers. Everyone knows that the ship will sooner or later wreck. It won't happen immediately, however, but in a while. In the meantime the ship proceeds with people on board who spend their remaining time in many different ways: there are those who dive into the sea to cool off a bit, some to distract themselves, some to become the most fit of all and some even to drown. There are also those who prefer to lock themselves in the cabin to feel safe and to spend a bit of peaceful time in their own space; this kind of people aim to build their own ivory tower in order to isolate themselves from the infinite ocean they have below and all around them, and into which they are about to dissolve anyway. 

If you wanted to focus your gaze more accurately on the heterogeneous and varied crew of the ship you would also see people who procreate and, at the same time, those who hang themselves; moreover you would see people who prefer to rest and others who would rather be busy by doing different activities. Beside them you can find people who love to spend their days by having lunch and dinner with others, talking amiably about this and that, without wanting to say anything in particular. There are also those who entertain others by giving any kind of lessons, such as history lessons, music lessons and even fitness courses. The fitness courses are the most popular in the ship: many people of the crew really want to keep a good and enviable shape.

We are talking about many different human beings who live in the same ship which continues to plow the waves while the dawns follow one another like precise strokes of a pendulum that diligently count the finite moments of a meaningless time with infinite horizons. 

Among the remaining passengers there are those who sell sandwiches, those who clean, those who play at the casino trying to get rich, those who pray to God with the secret hope of a definitive salvation and those who work all day long by complaining about the lack of free time in their life. If you look around and pay even more attention you may happen to see people who love to tell others what will happen the day after and what would be the right thing to do in order to increase the level of well-being of the entire crew; some of them keep yelling: "Things must change! It is no longer possible to go on in this way for fuck's sake!". The word you may happen to hear the most with deep resentment and indignant violence is "Shame!". On the other hand there are many people who are attached to the past and to the traditions which they strongly defend and promote with great conviction.

Then there are those who steer the ship and spend time discussing the best direction to follow by only occasionally touching the rudder that seems to be considered more like a trophy than a tool. There are also those who spend most of their time complaining about the weather and those who read newspapers with a visible intellectual attitude and who, through their proud and angry silence, seem to think: "The world is not as it should be! Society is not as I would like it to be! It's all their fault! I am not happy because of them!". 

It is a very strange and curious ship which is full of people the closer they get to the shipwreck, the more it feels the need to delude themselves, the need to vent their own fear and anger on someone else and the need to grasp the absolute with an incredible jump to escape from reality once for all. 

Anyway we were about to forget about those many weird and funny people who keep planning holidays: the meaning of their life seems to get a break from their life itself; most of them don't even really know why they always keep running and doing so many things because they never have time to ask themselves why they never have time: they are walking existential paradoxes trapped in a curious vicious circle they prefer not to know about.

Among the many different categories of people that would remain to be described there is at least one more who deserves to be mentioned: that of those who spend their time observing others, taking notes about what they see and what they think. A few of them (who sometimes, who more often) try also to have a rational dialogue with someone of the crew in order to bring a bit of joy in this crazy and emotional ship: they are called philosophers. Usually they do not have much success, on the contrary many respectable men of the institutions present on the ship, including several school principals, lawyers, teachers and administrators, consider these philosophers dangerous and feel a great distrust, a deep suspicion and a notable antipathy towards them. In this ship, in fact, dialogue and thinking are considered something inappropriate; something that often powerful people, when they can and when it's convenient try to discourage with different kinds of punishments, more or less severe. In this ship, indeed, if you want to live without major problems and without attracting too many disadvantages, it is better  if you do not think and if you do not dialogue at all, especially in public.

However, in the meantime, regardless of what each individual of the entire crew does or wants or thinks, the ship proceeds inexorably towards its own unknown, inevitable and meaningless goal.

The orphans of themselves

Many human beings have become parents only because they have never been able, not even once, to give birth to themselves.

(Work by Aphaia. To see more works of her go to Istagram and check @aphaia)

Reason and heart

Reason has its reasons which heart knows not of

A dying prisoner suspended between finite and infinite

 I am a limited being made up of organs, muscles, tendons, cartilages, joints, blood and cells. I live by following ideals that orient my life, that give it meaning but at the same time constantly ruin it. I would like to be who I am not. I would like to do what I can't. I would like to achieve what I don't have. I am a tightrope between dung and salvation, between finite and infinite, between the fear of nothing and the longing for everything; and the more this rope is stretched, the more it risks breaking. And so, between an attempt to reach perfection and the need to mend the continuous tears resulting from this tension, I wear out daily and inexorably burn myself. And as I aim for the top, perfection crumbles in front of me: and the higher I aim, the more it shatters. Each step I take is an attempt on life. Each jump I take is a piece that detaches from the chaotic puzzle that makes up my life. Each stroke forward is the crumbling of a dream. Thus, as I climb daily towards heaven, I slip desperately towards the boundless nothingness which is the grave of every ideal and the cradle of all existence. Physical collapse. Inner shipwreck. Dying life. And I wake up cyclically all sweaty and panting from obsessive dreams and each time I see myself for what I really am: a limping beggar, on the edge of a sidewalk, dying out of an excess of desire.

                                                 

The sense of swimming

 If I think about the role that swimming has played in my life, I must admit that above all it represented a sort of ritual, of habit, of constant. Repetitions of laps and movements. Going forward and going back, forward and back, forward and back again: one lap after the other. Doing kilometers without reaching any destination. Moving through the water to find yourself, at the end, at the starting point. Forward and back again, one more lap. To struggle to move your body in order to go nowhere. To research the infinite within a pre-established perimeter. A way of flying in the water. A moving meditation. «Tic-Tac-Tic-Tac»: another lap of the stopwatch. Going forward in order to return. Going back in order to leave again. A beneficial alienation. A sincere lie. A physical soliloquy. An incessant dialogue with oneself through water. Forward and back: another roundtrip. A wet dance in which technique is the way to follow, with effort and commitment, with perseverance and sacrifice, to enjoy the pleasure that only beneficial tiredness can give. One more lap and then another, like waves of the sea that rhythmically and incessantly dry on the shoreline. «Five sec... ...Ready? Go!». Setting new goals to still have something to achieve. To give oneself a purpose in order to have an excuse to move again. Getting tired to rest. Resting and then getting tired again. The pleasure of repetition. Repetition as a way to get better. Constancy as a condition to improve. «One lap slow freestyle and one fast butterfly stroke!». Swimming alone but with others. Feeling to be part of a group while challenging oneself. An individual sport but with a common language. Single individuals who form bonds among each other. Being together and meanwhile swimming alone. “Go slowly and go back fast!». Going forward and going back by respecting a precise order. Reproducing the same movements in space and time. Ten minutes; half an hour; more than an hour. One lap. 400 meters. Three and a half kilometers. Distances to be filled in a time that is supposed to be respected. Moving in space against time. Letting the body to flow through time by flowing in the water. An invisible and inner bucket of moist, wet and regenerating emotions. A sip of freshness. A breath of purity. «Eight times fifty meters mixed styles. Ten times one hundred meters freestyle. Four times seventy-five meters just legs!». Multiplications, counts and results: a way to apply the mathematics to the body and a way to forge the mind with discipline. A way not to get lost while letting oneself go in a liquid. Objective coordinates to orient oneself in a flow of sensations, emotions, physiological and mental reactions. To be alienated while you carve with strokes and strokes inside an enclosure of water built in the middle of infinity.

Human beings

A human being 

seen from the outside

is a human being 

like many others. 

A human being 

seen from inside

is a human being 

like everyone else.

The human sunset

Nice conjectures 

you have finished by now

To warm my heart

To doze off my thinking 

To recharge my desire 

And without any reasons 

The original road 

I retrace 

With the same cross 

On my shoulders 

Thirty times 

Heavier

I wander 

Among people

As a castaway 

A survivor

And embarrassed 

I lower my eyes 

Frightened 

As to greet 

The empty 

Void

In the void

Of an absent hope

Turned off

I close my eyes

And I fall 

Slowly

Asleep

 

Abandoned candle 

In the darkness 

Of a forgotten 

And buried church

Through its abyss

Of sadness:

Deep 

Mirror

Of each 

Naked life

A game without purpose

 I finally understood what I want from life: nothing. I finally understood what my goal is: none. It's all here, exactly as it is everywhere. It's all right now, exactly as it always is. Each goal is an illusion. Any solution is a deception. Every problem is a lie. Pain comes from a misunderstanding. There is nothing to achieve, nothing to pursue, nothing to hope for, nothing to lose, nothing to gain. "I" is a fiction. But what is this "I"? "I" is the psychological, cultural, linguistic, metaphysical illusion for which we believe in the existence of an essence, of something that is granite and indestructible but at the same time invisible and elusive inside us. "I" is the prejudice of all prejudices; the most rooted, the most resistant and the most difficult to destroy belief that humanity has ever produced and of which humanity itself in an expression; "I" is the most dangerous religion; the most revered disease; the misunderstanding of all misunderstandings; "I" is the most fragile basis on which humans have built the system of knowledge; the biggest mistake; the true original sin committed by humanity and with which every human being is born and which every man reproduces. "I" is the origin of evil and the infinite guilt that every human existence must atone for. It is the ways of the "Ego", not those of the Lord, that are infinite; the ways of this sadomasochistic form of narcissistic egocentrism seem to be really inexhaustible. What are the bodybuilder, the intellectual, the model, the columnist, the entrepreneur, the professor, the latin lover, the swimmer, the reader, the writer, the philosopher, the actor, the depressed, the monk, the pope, the singer, the father, the son, the grandfather, the uncle, the boxer, the rebel, the conformist, the politician, the voter, the thinker, the truck driver, even the missionary, the altruist, the benefactor, the prophet, the heretic, the king, the slave, the warrior, the beggar, the thief, the polite, the helper, the manipulator, the savage, the civilized, the popularizer, the humble, the vain, the hidden, the pursuer, the fugitive, the professional, the amateur if not different masks worn by the same "I"? But at this point someone might still ask the following questions: "But if the ways of "I" are infinite, does that mean there are alternative ways? Is there a way out of this prison?" The answers to these very difficult questions are very simple, too simple, so visible to appear almost invisible: there is no alternative way if there is no will to go somewhere and there is no prison from which to escape if there is no nothing to escape from; when there is no will, in short, there is no difference between inside and outside, nothing to worry about, no direction to follow. After all, these questions, like every question, are nothing more than clever attempts at affirming the "I" itself. An "I" that always tries and once again and once more to affirm itself, to spread, to feed itself and to celebrate itself. Here's what Nietzsche meant when he said: "Wherever I go, a dog named Ego follows me". After all, the question itself meant as a morpho-linguistic, psycho-philological, philosophical-cultural and emotional-rational structure, is nothing other than the gash made by the "I" in reality, in an attempt to open an extension. And after all, even every single word represents nothing but a crack, a sort of scratch on the world's canvas, a ray of light in the midst of darkness, as Apostle John claims, in his own words, at the beginning of prologue of his own gospel: "In the beginning was the Logos, the Logos was with God and the Logos was God. He was in the beginning with God: everything was made through him, and without him nothing was made of everything that exists. In him was life and life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not accept it". And if we look closely, what is the "I" itself if not the mask of the will? A will that the darkness itself has never accepted? In short, who am I myself if not a specific expression of this unwanted will that is configured as the unwanted principle of existence itself? Here is what Schopenhauer meant by arguing that the world is fundamentally what each man sees through his will, the absolute principle of reality. And these same words and this same thought within this same screen are an expression of this will! This means that if I still write, if I still think, it is because I still want something, because I am still a victim of this inexhaustible engine that pushes me to do something more. Perhaps I just have to realize that accepting and denying are two sides of the same illusion. Perhaps I just have to understand that only when total acceptance and total denial coincide does the illusion vanish and nothing remains, if not a moment that coincides with eternity, which is nothing more than what we human beings call "death". I've always had everything in front of my eyes but I've never seen it because I was always worried about wanting something. It was always the will that didn't allow me to see the absurd sense contained in the obvious banality and bad habit of expecting something, since it's all here, exactly as it is everywhere, and since it's all right now, exactly as it always is. And here for the first time in my life I see clearly what life is: a game without purpose; a circumscribed dance; a single breath.

Hunger and Heaven: the Christian Italian culture

 Italy is made up largely, today as in the past, of people interested above all in survival and reputation. It is not by chance that a large part of the world's fame in this country is linked to food and fashion. In psycho-sociological terms these two preeminent interests can be interpreted as the social affirmation of two collective defense strategies aimed at stemming the anxiety caused by two fundamental fears: death and judgment. Naturally these two fears are present in every human being and, therefore, in every culture but in Italy, because of historical, cultural, political, religious and economic reasons, the fear of death and the fear of judgment have assumed a clear preeminence over what has happened elsewhere. Distrust of others, envy, irrepressible greed, perennial dissatisfaction, jealousy for one's own things, attachment to material goods, the widespread hypocrisy for which values that are punctually betrayed by actions in the private sphere, the tendency to publicly pose oneself as champion of the collective good, as altruist and savior of one's neighbor but living in the private sphere according to principles of selfishness, careerism, opportunism, disloyalty, dishonesty and cunning: this contradictory behaviour can be interpreted as the effect of a huge and latent fear of starving combined with the ancestral desire for salvation, perfection and absolute fueled by Christianity itself. In short, We Italians are so afraid of starvation that we are never satisfied with what we have because "you never know what can happen" and, at the same time, we pretend as much as possible to be "decent" or even "noble" people in front of the eyes of others just like in front of the eyes of God who observes us from heaven. And the more cowardly, miserable, selfish, self-centred, narcissistic we are, the more we need to demonstrate in public that we are just the opposite.  We use others to deceive ourselves, to feel more beautiful, younger, purer, better people than we really are. We use other people, by convincing them that we are good people, to feel less foolish, miserable, corrupt, wrong, bad and less "evil" than we really are. We use appearances as a way to relieve our Biblical ancestral guilt. We use reputation as a way to feel less sinful. We are Christians who feel guilty a priori and who, while seeking heavenly salvation, dig their own grave in hell. Basically we are not able to forgive ourselves and that's exactly why we continue to sin.

Stepping out of Plato's Cave

Conversations between human beings in uniform on a football field: each one defends his role, his perspective, his interests. The question is: when is this not the case? In other words: when is a conversation more than that? Philosophical consultation proposes to raise the level of communicative interaction between subjects to a more meaningful one. Philosophical consultation takes into consideration one's own perspective as a determined perspective in order to test it, to evaluate it, to consider its daily, concrete and existential implications. Get out of one's own perspective and observe its boundaries, its contradictions and its limits in order to broaden it. Going out of our cave to unmask the shadows, illusions and lies that characterize our relationship with reality. In philosophical consultation, through the philosopher's questions, the subject becomes the object of his own thinking: it could be considered a way to know oneself through a dialogue. From this point of view thinking and dialogue represent a larger, higher and in some way also a more objective dimension than the subjective one in which we are all more or less constantly trapped.

Dialogue as a bridge among humans being

Dialogue leads to inner discoveries: we learn while recognizing something within ourselves; we learn while bringing something to light; we learn while something that was inside us comes to the surface and becomes something external to us; we learn while we reason with someone else who challenges our thinking system; we learn while we become strangers to ourselves and begin to observe ourselves from outside. Dialogue is precisely the practice that fosters this sort of self-knowledge. Dialogue is the mirror that does not reflect the illusory image of what we would like to be, but that shows us how we really are "here" and "now". Dialogue allows us to transform our thinking into critical thinking. In short, through dialogue we have the chance not only to know ourselves better, but even to open ourselves to the other and, at the same time, to open ourselves, through the other, to a higher dimension: the dimension of ideas and reasons. In fact dialogue is not an individual, private and self-closing act, but on the contrary it represents a dimension that opens us to confront with others and with reality. In short, dialogue is a bridge that connects humans to each other. Human beings who otherwise would limit themselves to imposing their own vision of the world instead of enriching their own through that of the other. Human beings who otherwise would remain unreachable islands even for the most daring, capable and experienced explorers. 

 

A blank sheet of paper and a pen

Men spend their lives 

fleeing from themselves 

for fear of being alone

in front of a blank sheet of paper

with a pen in hand

and no thoughts in mind

The escape of "timeless people"

Many of us don't have time, space and energy to dedicate to ourselves, to our daily discoveries, to our concrete happenings and existential stumbling blocks that we dodge with punctual, rigorous and unthinking dexterity. Overwhelmed by the weight of this burdensome lack, our walking becomes an escape and our living turns into a compensation. And then, in such relationship with the world and with ourselves, our happiness can only be reduced to the sterile and illusory opening offered by that frenetic expectation and that inauthentic action that represent the existential extremes between which the consummate pendulum of our inner life dances unknowingly, more and more dejected and dull: a life increasingly emptied, imprisoned and annihilated. But is it really a problem of time, or space, or energy? And what about choice then? What about courage? And will? What about priorities? And strength? And truth? In short: are we really unable to live otherwise or, deep down, do we breathe a sigh of relief at the idea of not having time, space or energy to try to follow an alternative path? What if it was us the first ruthless accomplices of this bloody crime that is consumed invisibly and silently, every single day, within ourselves and, consequently, in every single gesture of ours?

   

 

REAL COURAGE

 That one who stops resisting is more courageous than that one who continues

TEACHER OR PHILOSOPHER?

Are you one of those who think in search of a foothold?                                                Or are you rather one of those who love to indulge in thinking as a game for its own sake?

Do you need certainties on which to build your fortress?

Or do you rather prefer to navigate the waves of uncertainty by enjoying the unexpected and the unpredictable?

Do you need to plan a route before setting off as well as know right away which destination to reach?

Or are you rather used to discovering your destination while walking along unknown and always different paths?

Do you want to have everything under control to prevent any possible danger?

Or do you rather love to take the risk of shipwreck associated with actual exploration?

Does the idea of being able to lose yourself paralyze you or turn you on?

In short: are you more a teacher or rather a philosopher?

MIRRORS AND ILLUSIONS

Mirrors never lie. We human beings lie through the mirror by constructing illusory images on our faces, for example through make-up, or by deforming the reflected image through our own perception. In other words if human beings are unable to modify reality by transforming it into the image they desire, modify their own perceptions. And if on the one hand I am not sure that the sleep of reason produces monsters, on the other I am convinced that the fear of reality produces illusions.

THE SENSE OF PHILOSOPHISCHE PRAXIS

Apollo, as is well known, was not only the God of all arts, but also the God of the Sun who, through his own all-seeing, could illuminate everything. This is why in ancient times, when you wanted to know something more about any matter, you could go to the temple built in his honor in Delphi. So did, among others, a certain Chilo and it was he, according to what Porphyry tells us, to obtain what would become the most famous response ever issued by an oracle: "Know yourself". Three words which, not surprisingly, were inscribed on the same facade of the temple and which, in addition to wanting to mark the same boundary line between the sacred and the profane space, also seemed to want to convey to all those who had decided to cross that threshold, a message like this: "If you really want to enter this pure and uncontaminated space, having access to that illumination and that intuitive knowledge that the God of the Sun himself symbolizes, do it with the intention of becoming aware of what you are and don't expect anything more since there is nothing more precious! Otherwise, move away from this temple and never again dare to violate this sacred space!». Three words that, therefore, contain much more than a good-natured warning or an interesting exhortation from which to draw inspiration. 

Socrates, who for many is the true father of philosophy, was perhaps the first to truly understand this maxim to the extent that he placed it at the center of his constant exercise of thought. According to the Athenian philosopher, in fact, only if we recognize ourselves for what we really are, first of all taking note of our ignorance and consequently of all our other limitations, can we be reconciled with ourselves and reach a higher level of knowledge. It is no coincidence, among other things, that almost all scholars agree in recognizing that, through this sentence, Apollo wanted to order men to "Recognize their own limitations and finitude". In other words, in short, the God of the Sun himself was telling us this: “Stop distorting your own image through your cowardly lies and accept yourselves for who you are, which is nothing but fallible, imperfect and mortal beings!". We human beings, on the other hand, regardless of this divine prescription, continue to do everything to commit the same error as Prometheus who disobeyed the divine will by giving men fire. Precisely because of this presumptuous act of rebellion, Prometheus is first captured, then chained to a cliff and finally thrown into a bottomless ravine. And this seems to be the fate reserved for all those who, under the illusion of being able to submit everything to their own will, try in vain to rebel against the mortal condition in which they find themselves confined by the will of a higher order. Here’s the question: what does all this talk have to do with Philosophische Praxis? Here’s the answer: everything. In fact what is the deepest and most authentic sense of the need that lies behind every attempt, however unconscious and clumsy, to enter into dialogue with a philosophical consultant, if not precisely that of knowing oneself better by accepting the most possible for who he is?! The present paper aims to dissect precisely this profound link that exists between the Philosophische Praxis and self-knowledge. For expository needs, the discourse will be articulated and will develop starting from nine questions, which will be followed by two criticisms: the first will be addressed, in general, to philosophical consultants, while the second will be addressed, specifically, to myself. The latter criticism, among other things, will focus on the philosophical laboratory that I conducted at the municipal library of Cavallino Treporti (Venice) at the invitation of my colleague and friend Davide Ubizzo. 1) What does it mean to know ourselves? Knowing ourselves means recognizing, unmasking and destroying the illusions that each of us tends to form above all with respect to ourselves. 2) What kind of relationship exists between self- knowledge and another's view of the world? Self-knowledge is configured as an indispensable condition for becoming aware, not only of one's own vision of the world, but also of that of others. The distortions that we operate on our own image, in fact, necessarily affect everything we take into consideration, producing inevitable misunderstandings and errors of evaluation that do not even allow us to understand the other's system of thought. 3) Why do we need illusions? We need illusions because we cannot accept ourselves for who we are. 4) What must be done to unmask one's illusions? To unmask one's illusions it is necessary, first of all, to reconcile with oneself, which essentially means accepting that image we see reflected in the mirror for what it simply turns out to be, without the need to embellish it in an attempt to hide, both from us same as to others, all our innumerable imperfections. 5) What do we usually try to do? And why do we do it? Failing to tolerate our own makeup-free face, we constantly try to deceive ourselves either by lowering our gaze, or by wearing a mask and convincing ourselves that this is, in fact, our real face. Not unlike what the prisoners inside the cave of which Plato tells us in his famous myth did, we spend our lives staring at false and elusive shadows that are nothing more than the reflection of our own illusions. This is how that veil of Maya is born that stands between us and reality! A veil that we ourselves weave day after day and that continues to separate us from the so-called "truth" which in its etymological meaning means just unveiling. We feel ashamed for ourselves not unlike how Adam and Eve were ashamed of their nakedness after disobeying God. And here we feel the irresistible urge to cover our own face with that mask we wear in front of our own mirror. All to avoid taking note of our own limitations! All in order not to accept our transient and miserable mortal condition! That is why we have become illusionists as much more skilled as cowards! This is why we ended up living as expert fugitives trying to escape their own gaze! This is the reason why we are constantly tossed from side to side, tugged by desires that push us to chase unattainable mirages and, at the same time, suffocated by fear for ghosts that we ourselves have invented! And that's how, as we embellish our existence with increasingly striking simulacra, we inexorably sink into an invisible prison within which we feel more and more alone, lost and miserable. 6) What is the role of the philosophical consultant? To help anyone see what they don't want to see of themselves; to show the other the blind spot of one's gaze by exhorting him to think what from his perspective, as unacceptable, is unthinkable: this is the task of every philosophical consultant. 7) What is meant by dialogue within the Philosophische Praxis’ field? The dialogue that the philosophical consultant uses as a tool to help the consultant know a little more about his own thinking system is not an exchange of opinions. However, it is not always easy to recognize the difference between the two. Here, then, are the characteristics that transform a generic exchange of words into the dialogue that occurs in the Philosophische Praxis: A. Understanding and clarifying the interlocutor's worldview. B. To detection and to explicit of the assumptions contained in that vision. C. Questioning of those same assumptions. 8) What is the maximum result that a philosophical consultant can aspire to? Through some questions usually asked only after having explained the assumptions and points of inconsistency contained in the speech, the philosophical consultant could be able to encourage the consultant to temporarily jump out of his own thinking system. When this happens, the consultant gains the concrete possibility of permanently redefining, even if only partially, his own vision of the world. This is the maximum result that a philosophical consultant can aspire to. 9) What can induce the philosophical consultant to compromise the good development of the philosophical consultation? Among the various factors that can inhibit the proper conduct of the counseling certainly include the fears and desires of the philosophical counselor. Among the most common fears there are, in particular, that of disappointing others' expectations and that of not being able to understand the other. Among the most frequent desires, however, are that of affirming one's own vision of the world and that of avoiding any form of disagreement with one's interlocutor. Another risk factor presents within the dialogic process is represented by the desire to want to achieve some results, such as that of obtaining a paradigm shift within the consultant's thinking system. In this case, in fact, the obsession with the destination becomes the main reason for the failure of the trip itself. Much better not to expect anything.                                                       A critique Many philosophical consultants seem to be convinced that the meaning of the Philosophische Praxis is to create the conditions for encouraging an exchange of intelligent thoughts on a certain issue. Others believe that a large part of the consultant's task coincides with the ability to stimulate a debate with interesting, original and possibly self-made ideas. There are some who even confuse a philosophical workshop with a mini master's lesson followed by a democratic debate in which each participant is free to say more or less anything they want, as long as they do not disrespect anyone. As if that weren't enough, there are even those who mistake individual philosophical advice for a sort of existential private lesson through which to encourage the consultant to adopt their own ideas about the world. Too bad that none of this really has to do with the meaning of the Philosophische Praxis! It is as funny as it is grotesque to observe how many people unable to dialogue there are among those who, at least on paper, should be experts in dialogue. Many of them, going through their initiatives, seem more interested in exploiting their role as facilitators to obtain an invisible pulpit from which to bestow their witty sentences to the world. Facilitators, of course, but of their own narcissism! A narcissism that they pamper and satisfy through their proud and high-sounding monologues that cleverly pass off as necessary premises for discussion. More than philosophers, therefore, pompous opinion leaders full of pride and self-satisfaction. More than philosophical consultants, therefore, arrogant intellectuals who pose as professional thinkers in search of their audience. In reality they are simply insecure, fragile, frightened and suffering people who, through their intellectual staging, try to collect the maximum social recognition possible in an attempt to prolong their tiring coexistence with their own lies. In short, we are talking about people who do not accept themselves for who they are and who, through the Philosophische Praxis, try to distort even more that self-image with respect to which they are unable to stand comparison. Consultant philosophers who, in the vast majority of cases, would be the first to need to take advantage of philosophical advice as consultants but who are too scared and proud even to admit it. And this is, among other things, the essence of the bizarre paradox in which Phronesis, an Italian professional Association of Philosophical Consultation, finds itself; an association made up of individuals who, instead of addressing their various unresolved issues through dialogue, proclaim themselves consultants, trying to get others to do what they themselves are not able to do at all.                                                A self-criticism I believe that the philosophical workshop that I held on January 16, 2020 in Cavallino Treporti (Venice), is to be considered a failure because I was unable to get anyone to dialogue. The worldview of the participants, in fact, remained largely unfounded and the assumptions on which their affirmations were based, generally, were not even made explicit. It was at most an interesting exchange of views. And the fact that the workshop was appreciated by most of the participants seems to me further proof of its own failure. In fact people, especially in Italy, usually feel a certain satisfaction when they are able to let off steam by freely saying whatever they want. Several times it happened to me to find myself in front of people who, at the end of one of my workshops, even though they did not have a dialogue with anyone during the entire course of the evening, came to thank me, addressing me very positive opinions, enriched by generous compliments, only because they felt listened to, taken into consideration and valued in what they said. And it was above all my own fear of disappointing these expectations of others that I know very well, the cause for which I was not able to work more rigorously. The truth is, to become a philosophical consultant I still have to deal with several unresolved issues within me. And this is exactly what I have been doing, in an increasingly assiduous and constant way, for some time now: an incessant work through which I am beginning to glimpse that image reflected in the mirror that I too, like everyone, have always tempted to warp.