Below is a letter from John Lachs, our “Schirm­herr­schaft," to the members of Berlin Forum:   John Lachs, Philosophy Department at Vanderbilt University Nashville, February 21, 2016   To Members of the Berlin Practical Philosophy International Forum e.V,: When philosophy moved into the modern knowledge-factory, it lost its way.  Instead of offering visions of the whole of things and itself as a guide to life, it looked for fulfillment in abstractions.  It seems to … [Read more...]

MEDDLING John Lachs Vanderbilt University The great pleasures of life---try sex, food and money---are as nothing compared with the delight of running other people’s lives. Making others think and feel and do what we want affords a rush of satisfaction. People measure their significance by their power over others. … [Read more...]

Do you want to experience philosophy in the streets of Berlin? This city is full of the streets, buildings, monuments, cemeteries, squares, others that are somehow associated with philosophy and philosophers. We would like to explore this, so we start with the project of free "Berlin Streets Philosophical Guide". You will be able to download the first edition soon from this website. We hope also to develop the guide on regular basis - it should be a living book, to which you could also … [Read more...]

The essays that we publish at this place refer to the practical philosophy. Some of them will refer to the work of our patron, John Lachs. We hope that our website will contribute to the promotion of philosophy both in academia and outside of it.  We thank professor Tom Buford, Furman University, for his permission to publish his text here. Tom Buford: Are there costs to the relevance of philosophy to life? That question reveals a danger of thinking of Philosophy as directly relevant to … [Read more...]