← See the axis · The point of philosophy
ObjectionAttacks the positionSelf-help does it better
If philosophy is an art of living, it has heirs that outdo it on its own ground: for many concrete difficulties, evaluated psychotherapies and personal development do better, faster, for more people.
Objects to
Seligman (positive psychology) · Authentic Happiness · 2002
- The ambition to live better has changed address, and it has spread across very unequal standards: proven psychotherapies for diagnosed disorders, largely unregulated coaching for performance, self-help of variable quality for the everyday run of life. They are not all worth the same, but each opens a door the schools of wisdom no longer open.
- The most rigorous is cognitive-behavioral therapy, and its case is striking: already wrote men are disturbed not by things, but by the judgments they pass on things, and its founders, Albert Ellis and then Aaron Beck, claimed him explicitly. The idea, once isolated and equipped, let itself be turned into a protocol one evaluates, compares and teaches: what ancient wisdom offered to a few, this lineage has made testable.
- Philosophy has its exercises and even its handbooks, but they commit you to an entire reorientation of existence, backed by texts that demand time and background. Whoever seeks targeted relief will find shorter routes: graduated methods, fitted to a precise difficulty, anxiety, grief, confidence, attention, and whose effect can at least be measured.
Therefore So, for whoever wants above all to feel better on a precise point, the medicine of the soul has found more convenient, and sometimes better-tested, practitioners: keeping the word 'wisdom' then looks like nostalgia, and seeking what works seems to lead out of philosophy.
Possible resolutions of the objection
Challenges