When the world no longer makes sense, philosophy helps us learn how to live.
Learn to question what you take for granted, discover what truly matters, and experiment with new ways of seeing, thinking and being in the world.
Not philosophy as something you study. Philosophy as something you live.
7 live sessions · Small group of max. 10 · Online · €350
Starts 7 December 2026 · No prior knowledge of philosophy needed.
PhilosophyGym
We know more than ever. But do we know how to live?
We live in extraordinary times.
We have more information at our fingertips than any generation before us. Artificial intelligence can answer our questions, help us make decisions and increasingly do our thinking for us. We have endless advice about how to become happier, healthier, more successful and productive.
And yet, many of us feel increasingly uncertain about what really matters.
The familiar ideas about success, progress and the good life no longer seem quite as convincing. The world is changing faster than we can make sense of it. And somewhere between the demands of everyday life and the challenges facing our planet, we struggle to find the time and space to ask the questions that matter most.
What makes a good life?
What is worth caring about?
What do I really believe—and how much of it have I simply inherited?
How do I want to live in a world that feels increasingly uncertain?
Perhaps you recognise this feeling.
Perhaps you're questioning familiar ways of thinking and living, without quite knowing what might take their place.
Or perhaps you've spent years reflecting on these questions, but still find yourself struggling to live according to what you've come to believe.
Either way, something seems to be missing.
What if philosophy is exactly what we need right now?
For much of its history, philosophy was more than an intellectual pursuit.
It was a way of life.
For Socrates, philosophy meant examining one's beliefs and assumptions. For the Stoics, it involved daily practices of attention, reflection and action. Across philosophical traditions, the pursuit of wisdom was never simply about accumulating knowledge.
It was about learning how to live well.
This ancient understanding of philosophy has never been more relevant.
We live in a time of interconnected ecological, technological, political and social crises. But beneath these challenges lies an even more fundamental question: How do we make sense of ourselves and the world, and how should we live together?
Our habitual ways of thinking and living increasingly seem inadequate to the challenges we face.
And when the old answers no longer work, we need more than new information.
We need the ability to question our assumptions, make sense of our experiences, discern what matters, and find new ways of responding.
We need to cultivate wisdom.
Not as a collection of timeless truths or a formula for the good life.
But as a living practice of inquiry, reflection and experimentation.
Introducing the PhilosophyGym
A space to practice living wisely.
Imagine having a dedicated space each week to step outside the noise of everyday life.
To slow down and notice what usually goes unquestioned.
To explore the questions that rarely have room in our busy lives.
To challenge familiar assumptions, discover different perspectives and experiment with new ways of being.
And to do so alongside a small group of curious people who are equally willing to question themselves and the world.
This is the PhilosophyGym.
A seven-week philosophical training that brings philosophy out of books and into everyday life.
Together, we'll explore six practices of wisdom, drawing on philosophical traditions, recent research and the experiences we bring from our own lives.
We are not here to tell you how to live, but to help you develop the capacities to inquire into that question for yourself.
To become more attentive to how you experience the world.
More curious about what you think you know.
More discerning about what is genuinely worth caring about.
And more deliberate about how you choose to live.
This is not meant to make you a perfect person or finding the one right way to live.
It's about becoming more capable of living a meaningful, deliberate and deeply examined life.
What might change for you?
The PhilosophyGym isn't designed to give you seven weeks of interesting ideas that you leave behind when the course ends.
It's an invitation to develop capacities you can carry into your relationships, work, decisions and everyday experiences.
Find greater clarity about what matters: Explore the beliefs, values and assumptions that shape your life, and learn to distinguish what you genuinely care about from what you've simply come to accept.
Create space for depth in a superficial world: Practise slowing down, paying attention and engaging with questions that don't have immediate or easy answers.
Navigate uncertainty with greater confidence: Learn to meet complexity and ambiguity with curiosity and discernment rather than automatically reaching for certainty.
Develop your own capacity for judgment: Rather than relying exclusively on external advice or ready-made solutions, become more capable of thinking things through, making sense of your experiences and choosing how to respond.
Bring your values into how you live: Move beyond abstract commitments and good intentions. Discover how even small experiments can help you live with greater integrity.
Feel more connected to yourself, others and the world: Explore how your ways of seeing, thinking and acting shape your relationships—and how philosophical practice can deepen your participation in the world around you.
The seven sessions
Each week introduces a new practice of wisdom, combines philosophical inquiry with shared reflection, and invites you to explore the practice through an experiment in your own life.
Week 1 — 30 November 2026
Attentive Presence: Learning to Notice
How much of our lives do we actually pay attention to?
Meet the group and discover the Life as a Lab approach. Explore how attention shapes your experience and what becomes visible when you slow down and begin noticing the familiar with fresh eyes.
Week 2 — 7 December 2026
Unknowing Certainty: Learning to Live Without Knowing
What if not knowing were the beginning of wisdom rather than a problem to overcome?
Examine the beliefs and certainties you take for granted. Practise remaining curious in the face of uncertainty and opening yourself to perspectives you might otherwise dismiss.
Week 3 — 14 December 2026
Deconstructing & Reconstructing: Learning to See Otherwise
What if the world is not quite as you think it is?
Explore how inherited stories, cultural assumptions and personal experiences shape your understanding of yourself and the world. Experiment with different ways of seeing what you thought you already knew.
Winter break — time to let your experiments unfold.
Week 4 — 4 January 2027
Living Values: From What We Believe to How We Live
What is genuinely worth caring about?
Explore the values that orient your life, examine where your everyday choices align or conflict with them, and experiment with bringing what matters more fully into how you live.
Includes a midpoint reflection on your journey.
Week 5 — 11 January 2027
Transgression: Learning to Experiment Beyond the Given
What becomes possible when we question how things are supposed to be?
Identify an assumption, social convention or habitual pattern that shapes your life. Experiment with stepping beyond it, and observe what that reveals about yourself and the possibilities around you.
Week 6 — 18 January 2027
Integrate & Iterate: Learning to Change Your Practice
How does philosophical insight become lasting change?
Reflect on your experiments and discoveries. Explore how change emerges through repeated cycles of inquiry, experimentation and adaptation, and begin developing your own sustainable philosophical practice.
Week 7 — 25 January 2027
The Philosophical Life: Making Wisdom an Ongoing Practice
How might philosophy become part of the way you live?
Bring together the six practices, share what you've discovered, and develop a personal approach to continuing your philosophical journey beyond the course.
How it works
Every session combines philosophical ideas, facilitated inquiry, shared reflection and practical experimentation.
During our live sessions, we'll introduce philosophical perspectives, explore questions together and practise the art of inquiry.
Between sessions, you'll design and carry out a small experiment in everyday life, supported by guided exercises and your personal lab journal.
Throughout the course, you'll learn with a small group of participants, sharing observations, insights, uncertainties and questions.
We deliberately limit participation to ten people to create space for meaningful dialogue, genuine listening and learning from different perspectives.
what the fellowship offers
The PhilosophyGym is for curious minds who want to live more deeply, deliberately and wisely.
You might feel drawn to this course if:
You sense that familiar ideas about success, happiness or the good life no longer quite work for you.
You feel overwhelmed by the speed, complexity or superficiality of contemporary life and long for more depth.
You want to make sense of yourself and the world rather than simply adopting other people's answers.
You enjoy exploring philosophical questions but wish those explorations had a more tangible influence on how you live.
You care deeply about the world and wonder how to respond to its challenges through your own everyday life.
You long for thoughtful, meaningful conversations with people who are willing to question themselves.
You're ready to approach life with curiosity, openness and a willingness to experiment.
You don't need a philosophy degree, a particular worldview or any prior philosophical knowledge.
About your facilitators
Philosophy belongs in everyday life.
The PhilosophyGym is an offering from the Institute for Practical ekoPhilosophy (IPeP), a living laboratory exploring philosophy as a practical response to the crises of our time.
At IPeP, we bring together philosophical inquiry, scientific research and practical experimentation to explore what it means to live well in a changing world.
We believe that philosophy shouldn't remain confined to academic institutions or abstract debates.
It belongs in the ways we think, the choices we make, the relationships we cultivate and the worlds we help create.
Jessica Böhme, PhD
Jessica is a philosopher, professor and transformation researcher exploring the relationship between how we understand the world and how we live within it.
Her work brings together philosophy as a way of life, research on personal and societal transformation, and practical approaches to experimenting with change.
Leonie Trutschler
Leonie is a student of philosophy and ethics concerned with how to tumble philosophy out of its armchair and into moving bodies. She co-facilitates the PhilosophyGym, supporting participants in philosophical inquiry, shared reflection and everyday experimentation.
Together, we look forward to creating a space where we can explore, question, experiment and learn from one another.
Your Participation
Dates: Mondays, 7 December 2026 – 25 January 2027, with a winter break after the third session.
Time: From 18:00 CET; sessions last 90 minutes, with two extended sessions of 120 minutes.
Format: Seven live online group sessions.
Group size: Maximum ten participants.
Between sessions: Approximately 30–60 minutes for reflection, reading and guided exercises, alongside experiments integrated into your everyday life.
Investment: €350
The fee includes all seven sessions, workbooks, reading materials and access to the private cohort space.
Structure and Commitment
The fellowship runs for three months (November, 3rd 2026 to February, 2nd 2027) and requires approximately four hours per week.
Tuesdays, 7:00-8.30pm CET, online. Attendance is expected.
Weekly cohort call.Fellows design and conduct experiments in their own lives. In most cases this does not require additional hours, since it concerns how existing time is lived.
Experiments.Fellows keep a structured weekly log following a shared format. This log constitutes the primary research material of the project.
Documentation.Fellows share one short video per week on Instagram, communicating an experience, an insight, or a difficulty. Fellows without a public account may publish through IPeP's channels.
Public reflection.Some additional reading might be required (e.g. texts from Goethe, Bortoft, Holdrege, and from various traditions and interests represented in the cohort).
Reading.