Lydia Amir

Should philosophers address the needs of their societies? If the answer is affirmative, and if today's needs are being inadequately answered within the New Age movement for lack of viable alternatives, philosophers' minimal response could be teaching critical thinking outside the academe, and maximal response would be providing relevant wisdom for the world. The first option requires construing logic and epistemology as practical fields. The second requires reforming part of Philosophy as social thinking which provides relevant wisdom for the world. I expose here the maximal response based on an analysis of society's needs forcosmology and spirituality, the New Age Movement's role in providing for those needs, its dangers and imperviousness to criticism, and philosophers' possible responsibility for and interest in answering the needs for a synoptic vision.

In the last century, psychology has taken over moral questions. Theoretically, it has incorporated moral views into its various theories; practically, psychotherapists use moral discourse in their practice even when not substantiated by theory, as there seems to be a gap between what the theory can offer and the clients’ need. I probe the views on morality incorporated in psychological theories in order to expose their unsatisfactory content. I then point out that the practice of psychotherapy makes use of moral discussion. An important consequence of the insufficiency of the theory is that the discussion that actually takes place is in most cases unsubstantiated by theory. I conclude, therefore, that psychologists are not trained to do what they are doing. Moreover, the examination of historical and social factors that led to this situation suggests the conclusion that the role of discussing moral and ethical questions should be taken over by philosophical counselors. One consequence of the argument is that by answering a need in our society created by the weakening of established religion, philosophical practice is much in demand today without being necessarily in opposition to psychology or psychologists.