In the spotlight: Luis de Miranda
Who are you?
I am a philosopher of praxis, integrating and helping others integrate theory and practice in life. I created the CIPHER model: Crealectic Intelligence and Philosophical Health for Eudynamic Realities. Its more reflective movement is SMILE_PH, a phenomenological dialogue protocol through the six senses of philosophical health; its more creative movement is crealectics, the dialectical study of how our realities can be intercreated. I have one foot in academia and another in society, am anchored in the Nordic countries, but I like to believe I am a citizen of the world, with three nationalities and work conducted on several continents.
What is the role of philosophical practice in society today?
More central than ever. Judgment and thinking are increasingly delegated to machines, or so it is believed. Philosophical practice can show that theory and practice are a Janus-faced work, and that anyone can slowly become philosophically healthier. My working formula is T = PEWS + C: thinking is the integration of Person, Earth, Work and Society, with the constant addition of the creative onflow of life. A society that keeps this integration alive in its citizens will not outsource its conscience. This is not just about self-development but also world-building, the facilitation of a more compossible planet.
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 Elon Musk whether he would accept a SMILE_PH cycle with me. SMILE_PH stands for Sense-Making Interviews Looking at Elements of Philosophical Health, a series of dialogues through the six senses of philosophical health: bodily sense, sense of self, sense of belonging, sense of the possible, sense of purpose, and philosophical sense. The point would be to help him uncover the right questions about what it means to be the most powerful engineer alive, and what a good and compossible life may look like on Earth, not just on Mars.
What is the most important thing that philosophical practice has taught you?
Intellectual empathy. I have come to believe it matters more than emotional empathy: the capacity to understand another person's reasons, values and worldview with enough rigour and benevolence to help them think further. Years of deep dialogues with people from every continent have also taught me something the relativists did not expect: beneath the diversity of stories and cultures, human beings share universal ideals and aspirations, for instance the desire for a greater purpose and a meaningful life.
Which film, work of art, or piece of music do you consider the most philosophical, and why?
I wrote and published philosophical novels between the ages of 25 and 40, among them Who Killed the Poet? and Paridaiza, partly inspired by Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, Dostoyevski, Sartre, Orwell, Camus, Auster, and many others. If I must choose one work, let's say Eugène Ionesco's The Bald Soprano. It belongs to the theatre of the absurd, yet its absurdity is not cynical but deliciously humorous and, in the end, hopeful. It dismantles the clichés we live by and leaves us with a most practical philosophical question: do we actually know the people we live with and the thoughts we live by?
Final thoughts: Is there anything else you would like to share with the conference audience and those interested in philosophical practice?
Our worldwide community of philosophical practitioners is rich in conceptions and methods. Its currents should always respect one another, and, where possible, seek to collaborate. I hope ICPP 2027 will be a celebration of our shared ideals and of collegiality. We are bringing the world something it urgently needs: a practice of thinking that is collectively liberating and eudynamically transformative. That gift will only be received if we practitioners show maturity and cohesion, unity in diversity, a richness of modalities free of intestine quarrels. Philosophical practitioners of the world, unite!
"Philosophical practitioners
of the world, unite!"