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Outdoor and philosophy
General information
Hans Bolten and I facilitate seminars in which outdoor activities are combined with Socratic dialogue. In our experience, the combination of both methods for group work ensures faster development of processes, both at the philosophical level and the level of group dynamics. Previous participants have regularly expressed their amazement about the effectiveness of this approach.
Seminars
In addition to our in-company training courses and workshops, we also organise reflection seminars with open enrolment.
Different from regular outdoor training
The main difference with regular outdoor programs is the greater focus on reflection. We spend almost as much time on reflection, as on activities.
As usual, the outdoor program is continually adapted to the development of the group, in order to get the group moving as fast as possible (both literally and metaphorically) in a way that makes sense for everyone involved. The choice of activities is often based upon the state of group dynamics, but may also be used to further the philosophical dialogue.
During the indoor sessions, the facilitating philosopher invites the participants to look at their personal reaction to what they have experienced outdoors. In these sessions, slowly but surely, all vagueness in people’s statements is made apparent, and removed. This clarification process has a very strong personal impact. As a result of this personal focus, participants do not just consider the group dynamics, but also look at how these activities affect them personally.
Different from a regular socratic dialogue
In a regular socratic dialogue, much time is spent on choosing an example and clarifying it. In our approach, however, participants already have a clear example at hand that they can all refer to: the outdoor activities. The shared experience of the outdoor activity swiftly brings to the surface the differences in individual experience and interpretation. Also, participants recognise the differences more clearly and faster in verbalising their different experiences of the shared outdoor activities.
What people say, and the underlying judgements, are connected to a concrete activity that every group member has been part of. As a result, participants can not speak in abstracto, or without being held responsible for what they say, as everything that is said will reflect on the behaviour of one or more group members. As a result, the dialogue may take unpredictable directions, and will be very exciting at times.
For amore detailed description of a regular Socratic dialogue and its learning outcomes, please read the article on the backgrounds and outcomes of Socratic dialogue that Hans Bolten wrote.
In short
The advantages of the outdoor/philosophy combination can be summed up as follows:
- participants start to speak much faster in the first person, rather than the impersonal third person
- words are actions: gratuity quickly disappears from the conversation, and from 'speaking about', the tone turns to 'speaking with and to each other'.
This method works for groups and individuals that want to talk about real issues. Because this method makes real issues surface, it is less appropriate for groups that feel insecure or vulnerable, or that have other group processes going on that prevent them from really questioning themselves.