Booklet of Contemplative Philosophy - Ran Lahav
What is Contemplative Philosophy?
Standard academic philosophy focuses on analyzing and developing theoretical ideas. It encourages us to use our reasoning, and to leave the rest of our personality uninvolved. Even 'applied philosophy' attempts to develop ideas in the abstract, and only then to apply the finished product to concrete life.
Contemplative philosophy seeks to engage our entire being. Here, Plato's cave allegory is useful. The allegory illustrates, first, that the role of philo-sophia is to call the person to transcend the everyday level of understanding (the shadows) towards a deeper dimension of life and reality. Second, it emphasizes that the process of philosophizing is not that of theorizing in the abstract, but that of turning towards those deeper aspects of reality, encountering them directly and opening ourselves to them. Third, the process is not limited to a certain faculty (e.g., reason) within the person, but involves the entire person: the entire person must turn around towards the light and walk out of the cave. And fourth, the power that induces the person to turn around is the Platonic Eros: the yearning to get closer to the Real.
In accordance with Plato's allegory, contemplative philosophy seeks to engage the person as a whole, not just the faculty of reasoning. Its aim is wisdom, which implies openness of understanding to realms beyond our limited and self-centered perspective, towards new layers of being. Philosophizing is not a tool for analyzing and simplifying and solving problems, but on the contrary, a way of opening ourselves to the infinite depths and complexities of reality.
Such a philosophy is contemplative in the sense that it requires us to open ourselves and listen and respond from our inner depth. It calls us to transcend the superficial division between reason and emotion, and to arouse our capacity to understand from the center of our existence.
In this process, philosophical ideas and texts offer us the words for new ways of understanding. We treat a philosophical idea or text not as an objective theory that attempts to describe reality the way it is, like a scientific theory, but rather as one of the voices of reality that we can listen to. We do not argue whether a philosophical idea is right or wrong, but rather try to see what understanding it arouses in us.
In this sense, contemplative philosophy can help make life deeper. It can show us that our world is more than a collection of indifferent facts, that we can take part in those hidden dimensions of reality, and that we can explore them together in a philosophical companionship.
