In the spotlight: Jessica Böhme
Who are you?
I am Jessica Böhme, founder and director of the Institute for Practical ekoPhilosophy (IPeP) and a professor at the FHM Berlin. I write a weekly newsletter about philosophy as a practical response to the crises of our times. My work is driven by the question of how to live life in a collapsing world. My expertise lies in utilizing practical philosophy as a meta-technology for individual, social and ecological transformations.
What is the role of philosophical practice in society today?
Over the last decade, I've worked at the crossroads of philosophy, sustainability science, complex systems theory, psychology and transformation research - driven by the belief that our current crises are fundamentally a crisis of human-ing: uncertain about how to live well, how to relate to one another and the living world, how to be human well in a more-than-human world. This crisis cannot be resolved through technological, organizational, or political solutions alone. It requires a reorientation at the level of philosophy itself - not as an abstract discipline, but as lived experiment. Philosophy not simply as a lived practice, but as a practice of living.
What is the most important thing that philosophical practice has taught you?
That a question can be more transformative than an answer. Good philosophical practice changes the relationship we have to our own certainty. It teaches us to stay with complexity without immediately trying to resolve it, and to discover that our assumptions are not the world itself. For me, this has become a practical discipline: becoming curious about my own life, testing ideas through experience, and allowing reality to surprise me.
If you could ask one question to a world leader of your choice, what would it be, and who would you ask?
I would ask Ursula von der Leyen what politics would look like if future generations and the more-than-human world were treated as participants in the political community. I would be curious to see what happens when we stop asking what lichens have to say about our trade agreements, or starfish about pesticide use.
Which film, work of art, or piece of music do you consider the most philosophical, and why?
It’s hard to pick. I find philosophical thinking in the street, in popular culture, in music, jokes, rituals and everyday practices. I am drawn to these forms of philosophy that are seemingly hidden.
Final thoughts: Is there anything else you would like to share with the conference audience and those interested in philosophical practice?
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"Philosophy not simply as a lived practice, but as a practice of living."
