WHY IPeP exists.
We share & create resources to help people live philosophically.
While psychological and physical health in the context of climate change, species extinction, and many other of our current predicaments are becoming increasingly recognized and understood, philosophical health is under-represented and under-researched. IPeP closes this gap with the following goals:
Enhancing philosophical health as a meta-technology to psychological and physiological well-being.
Facilitating the integration of inner (philosophical) dimensions to foster healthy futures, supplementing technological, organizational, and political solutions.
Mainstreaming and educating about the significance of practical philosophy in addressing the underlying causes of the challenges of our times.
Establishing a robust framework for practical philosophy and its role in shaping healthy futures through peer-reviewed publications.
Why it matters
People want to live a fulfilling, meaningful, effortless, resonant, peaceful, fun, joyful, embodied … life that is in service to Life and that aligns with social and ecological challenges. Living philosophically can help them with all of that. It’s not an end goal, but a lifelong learning process that is no-nonsense, that is deep and leads to real transformation, not just surface level changes. It goes to the heart of our being, thinking, and acting, turns it upside down, inside out, disturbs, desconstructs and reconstructs it in a new way (even if subtle) that gets us to the life you want - personalized, like they want it, not like someone else is prescribing it for them. And its also not just about them as individuals, but about them in their context - them as a participant on this Earth. Their story, their life, their soul - if we will - is unique. So will their life-long growth and learning process be. Only they themselves know how they want to live … what we (IPeP) know is that there are better and worse ways to go about exploring this - how life-ing works. We offer guidance, exercises, and a space in which to explore and learn how to live and be differently. By focusing on the process and trying on different thought styles, ways of feeling, and ways of being, we offer a dynamic and flexible method. The processes we teach is for life, no matter what one’s goals may be and how that may change.
OUR APPROACH.
Philosophy as A Way of Life: we see philosophy as a practice and with life itself serving as the living laboratory for this practice. Philosophy must be entangled in everyday life.
Rewilding Philosophy: we include voices in the philosophical discourse that are often largely overlooked. This includes not only Indigenous knowledges and the perspectives of marginalized human groups but also insights from the more-than-human world. For instance, what can water teach us about how to show up in life. We also include other ways of knowing beyond the conceptual and analytical.
ekoPhilosophy: we belief that any healthy philosophy must be grounded in: relationality, post-humanism, indigeneity, multispecies approaches, developmental approaches, process philosophy, new materialism, 4(+2)E cognition, interbeing, quantum physics and biosemiotics (among others).
LIVING eko-Philosophically
The IPep Matrix
The Conventional Life: this is the default state of living on autopilot—a life defined by cultural expectations and focused on narrow, personal concerns, lacking both deep personal meaning and a connection to the larger world.
The Dogmatic Activist: this person cares deeply about the world but acts from a place of rigid ideology or external "shoulds" rather than authentic, internal conviction. This can lead to burnout, resentment, and a lack of creative, personal response to crises.
The Individualist Achiever: this is the endgame of much traditional self-help and libertarianism. One successfully creates their own life, but remains disconnected from the whole, leading to a sense of existential isolation or a disregard for collective well-being.
Living ekoPhilosophically: the synthesis of a deeply personal, authentic path that is simultaneously in service to the whole. You are the author of your life, and your story is a love letter to the world.
We do not see these axes as simple opposites where one side is "good" and the other is "bad." Instead, we see them as developmental lines and as polarities to be integrated. The key is to transcend and include, not to reject and repress.
Instead of a static grid, view the matrix as a map of growth. The goal isn't just to be in the top-right quadrant, but to understand how one grows into it by healthily navigating the other quadrants first.
Y-Axis: The Growth of Care (from Self to World)
Ego-centric: this is not inherently selfish or bad. It is a necessary and foundational stage of development. A child must first develop a healthy ego and a strong sense of self before they can genuinely care for others.
Healthy Expression: Strong identity, good boundaries, self-respect, personal responsibility.
Unhealthy Expression: Narcissism, inability to form relationships, seeing others only as a means to an end.
Eco-Centric: This stage transcends and includes a healthy self. You don't annihilate your ego; you realize its profound interconnection with the whole. Your identity expands. The self is no longer a separate I, but a unique and precious node within a universal We.
Healthy Expression: Compassion, systemic awareness, ecological consciousness, radical love for the whole.
Unhealthy Expression: Eco-mash, codependency, losing oneself in the collective, pathological altruism where one has no boundaries.
The Y-axis represents the developmental journey of identity, from a healthy ego to a world-centric embrace. One must first master the bottom pole to healthily express the top one.
X-Axis: The Growth of Agency (from Conformer to Creator)
Externally-Defined: This is also a necessary and foundational stage. We are all born into a culture, a family, and a set of rules. Learning to live within these structures (a conformist or ethnocentric stage) provides stability, safety, and a shared sense of reality.
Healthy Expression: Being a responsible community member, respecting tradition, understanding shared values.
Unhealthy Expression: Blind obedience, dogmatism, inability to think for oneself, being trapped by shoulds.
Self-Authored: This stage transcends and includes the lessons of the collective. Having first learned the rules, one develops the capacity to reflect on them, question them, and consciously choose which to keep, discard, or transform. You become the author, but you are writing with the language and lessons the collective first gave you.
Healthy Expression: Authenticity, integrity, critical thinking, creativity, radical self-authorship.
Unhealthy Expression: Adolescent rebellion, reflexive anti-authoritarianism, cynical deconstruction without building anything new.
The X-axis represents the maturation of meaning-making, from being shaped by the world to co-shaping your world with it.
From this more nuanced understanding, the following categories result:
The Foundational Self: A healthy, conventional life where one has learned the rules and has a solid sense of self. This is the stable foundation from which further growth is possible. It is to be included, not denigrated.
Growth in Care without Agency: The person's circle of compassion has expanded, but they are still applying external rules and dogmas to their action. This is the well-meaning activist at risk of burnout because their actions aren't rooted in their own deep, authentic wellspring.
Growth in Agency without Care: The person has learned to think for themselves and create their own path , but their circle of concern remains limited to their own ego. This is the brilliant but isolated individualist who hasn't yet realized their deep interconnectedness.
Living Philosophically: This isn't just another box. It is the emergent property of having healthily developed along both axes. It's the stage where a person with a sovereign, self-authored identity consciously chooses to live in deep, loving service to the interconnected whole.