Oscar Brenifier

Oscar Brenifier holds a Bachelor of biology degree (University of Ottawa) and a PhD in Philosophy (Paris IV – Sorbonne). For many years, in France as well as in the rest of the world, he has been working on the concept of ‘philosophical practice’, both from a theoretical and practical viewpoint. He is one of the main promoters of the project of philosophy in the city, organizing philosophy workshops for children and adults and philosophy cafés, working as a philosophy consultant, etc. He has published about thirty books in this domain, including the ‘Philozenfants’ series (Editions Nathan), which has been translated into over twenty-five languages. He founded the Institut de Pratiques Philosophiques (Institute of philosophical practice), to train practical philosophers and organize philosophy workshops in various places: schools, media centres, old people’s homes, prisons, social centres, firms, etc. He is one of the authors of the UNESCO report: “Philosophy, a school of freedom”. 


3 MONTHS PROGRAM: PHILOSOPHICAL COMPETENCIES & PRACTICE (English)

October 7th, 2023 - January 9th, 2024

(Holidays: December 23rd, 2023 to January 2nd, 2024)

Practice argumentation, interpretation, problematization, questioning


LEVEL 1: 3 MONTHS, 6 PHILOSOPHICAL COMPETENCIES

LEVEL 2: 3 MONTHS, 6 PHILOSOPHICAL COMPETENCIES, 1 SPECIALIZATION (in philosophical counselling, facillitation of workshops or thinking competencies)

  • 2 weeks per competency
  • 2 seminars: Saturday and Sunday (14h-21h)

The first seminar will take place on October 7th and 8th and will introduce the program. A second seminar will serve as a conclusion on the weekend of January 6th and 7th.

  • 2 lessons per week (theoretical content)
  • 2 exercises per week (with feedback and comments from tutors)
  • 1 workshop per week on the week's competency

Level 1 workshops: Monday 7-9 pm.
Level 2 workshops: Tuesday 7-9 pm.

Information and registration: here

Contact:

mail: Leila Millon Bierre telegram: +33768428208 Whatsapp: +33768428208


New Video: Philosophical Consultation

“Who am I? Where am I going? What is my vision of the world? How could I think differently? All these fundamental questions that must always be ignored, because we are caught up in the daily routine and obligations. The philosophical consultation is a thinking exercise, where the philosophical practitioner invites his interlocutor to settle down momentarily, in order to examine those fundamental questions. In this book, the author mentions different facets of this practice, describing its issues, its skills and difficulties. Various theoretical elements are presented, as well as the description and analysis of a session of consultation.”

In this session, Oscar Brenifier presents some of the highlights of his latest book on the subject. Then he gives an example of such a consultation with one of the participants, in order to show how the process takes place.

New Book: The Art of Philosophical Practice

Couverture la pratique philo

The emerging of new practices in the domain of philosophy, motivated by the desire to philosophize, which is expressed by the wider public since a few years, leads us to ponder the nature of this philosophizing, perhaps, in part, to answer those who question the legitimacy of this recent popularization of the philosophical impulse. In order to better capture its manifold manifestations, the present work will approach this new phenomenon from various angles: from the angle of the attitudes, as astonishment or radicality (fundamentalism), for example; also, from the angle of the skills involved therein, like analysis or argumentation, or again like problematization and conceptualization. But, we will also discuss about dialectic, intuition, philosophical consultation and so on.

Book PDF Download

Trainings

Individual tutoring online

For those wishing to train in philosophical practice, the Institute of Philosophical Practices offers individual training, online, using Skype and Google Docs. It is a program of ten weekly sessions, 90 minutes, accompanied by individual work, with a philosopher practitioner. The goal is to discover and practice different philosophical skills: to practice argumentation, analysis, conceptualization, problematization, etc.
The program is built on various themes.

For example:

  • reflections around a Buddhist tale.
  • Interpretation of a Chekhov story.
  • How to problematize with questions.
  • Study of texts by Nietzsche, Spinoza and Hegel.
  • How to do a self-consultation.
  • How to evaluate someone based on their answers to a series of questions.
  • Interpretation of a Raphael painting.

Anyone interested can ask to watch the video of a session in order to better understand the work.

 These courses can be held in different languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.
For more information, write to institutdepra.philo@gmail.com

Written work

For those who do not wish to work via Skype, we also offer a written online training program.

Just like for audiovisual tutoring, you will be assigned a philosopher practitioner, who will send you regular exercises, followed by a rapid feedback on the work done.

This can take different forms:

In marathon, daily, intensive (for 15 days or one month)

In a more leisurely way, 1 or 2 times a week (time to be determined).

For example: You receive an exercise on Monday. For Thursday, the exercise must be done. In less than a day, the tutor evaluates the exercise, and sends you a new one, which must be returned for the following Sunday.

The exchange can take place on the platform of your choice (What’sApp, Messenger, Viber etc.), although the best is to work directly on a Google doc.

The work can take place in two ways: either by theme (philosophical texts, stories, musical works, paintings and others.) It is also possible to propose a theme. The second option is a work on philosophical skills (arguing, problematizing, conceptualizing, evaluating, interpreting, questioning, presupposing).

Group training

For those wishing to train in philosophical practice, the Institute of Philosophical Practices offers group training of 10 sessions, online, using Skype and Google Docs.

The work will be similar to the individual sessions – weekly, for 1h30, with a homework in between. But you will learn in small groups, between 2 and 10 people. The number of people will depend on the fee you can afford. This work is therefore much less expensive than a one-on-one  format.

Each week a philosopher works with one person on an exercise and others observe and then discuss the method. Each person will have a chance of being a client for an individual session and will be able to see sessions with others. The advantage of such a way of working is that you can see better the method of working, learn how to use google doc in the sessions with clients, how to work with them using thinking exercises, etc.

Anyone interested can ask to watch the video of a session or to participate in a trial session as an observer, in order to better understand the work. These courses can be held in different languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.

Contact Us

For more information, write to institutdepra.philo@gmail.com.