Abstract

Twenty years after its appearance in Italy, Philosophical Consultation remains misunderstood and therefore has yet to become established as a professional practice. This depends especially on the lack of a clear and well-founded definition of the practice and of its goals, which causes confusion between Philosophical Consultation and the “helping professionsµ, particularly Philosophical Counseling. This confusion is also found within the international community of practitioners, where Philosophical Counseling is frequently conflated with Philosophische Praxis, the first and original “philosophical practiceµ which in 1981 marked the “practical turnµ in philosophy. This paper offers a general view of today’s Italian landscape and a detailed explanation of how to distinguish Philosophical Consultation from the “helping professionsµ.