Philotherapy as a social engagement

Abstract

The paper focuses on emotional subjectivity (a sense of own identity based on an emotional reception of values) on the one hand, and the constitution of an organic community (one characterized by immediacy, as opposed to a formal community, which is permeated by institutional relations that mediate intersubjective relations between the community?s members). The argument rests on the idea, supported by modern experimental neuroscience, that emotions are the key dynamic factors of decision-making, quite contrary to the asumption of a rational deliberation. This idea generates significant consequences for the understanding of virtue, individual and collective identity, and the way in which informal communities are formed, even within larger institutionalized societies. One of the implications of the idea that emotional subjectivity is at the core of decision-making is that any therapeutic intervention, including philotherapy, must take as its starting assumption the fundamental emotional foundations of all decisions and actions taken in society. When this therapeutic approach is applied to issues that reach beyond the individual concerns or interests, it becomes activist, and takes on the shape of social engagement. The paper argues that the emotionality of intersubjective dynamism in society necessitates a social role for philosophical practice, both as a therapeutic activity (in the form of individual or group socialization or resocialization with regard to values), and as a shaping influence on social discourse on values, specifically focusing on developing a particular collective sensibility for key values that contribute to ideas such as the good life, a cohesive community or common fate, all of which characterize organicism in community-building that has proven as a form of social healing in cases of collective distress.