A waymaking philosopher is a term for someone who sees philosophy as a living practice for navigating life, often drawing on ancient traditions and modern insights from fields like phenomenology and neuroscience. Andrea Hiott is a prominent contemporary philosopher most associated with this idea, describing "waymaking" as a philosophy that understands cognition through embodied movement and action, emphasizing a dynamic and holistic approach to consciousness, relationships, and the world.
Core concepts of the way-making approach to philosophy are:
Philosophy as a way of life: This approach rejects the idea of philosophy as a purely academic or theoretical discipline and instead views it as a practical "art of living" that informs daily actions and choices.
Embodied cognition: The mind and body are not separate, and thinking is understood as a form of embodied movement through one's environment. This includes physical movements, sensory experiences, and mental "trajectories".
Dynamic and emergent: Rather than following pre-set doctrines, waymaking involves navigating and shaping one's path in real-time. This process is dynamic, adapting to new challenges and opportunities.
Connecting dichotomies: Waymaking does not attempt to solve divides but to explore the space already holding them. This gives us a new framing on such traditional philosophical issues such as the separation between the mind and body, the mental and physical, or the individual and the community.
Storytelling and meaning-making: This approach uses narrative, metaphor, and storytelling to make sense of experiences and to find guidance in the face of difficulty.
Relationship with the world: It emphasizes a sense of agency and responsibility in how one interacts with the world, recognizing that the world also responds to our intentions.
What is the way-making approach?
Way-making is a philosophy centered on the idea of how we navigate and make our own paths through life, incorporating cognitive science, narrative, and paradoxical thinking. It emphasizes creating new ways of understanding and acting by not forcing a single perspective, but by holding contradictory ideas in a dynamic process, which can be applied to fields like cognition, social change, and personal development. It is distinct from other uses of the term, such as an anthology of writing or a type of astrology, though some of its ideas align with those contexts.
Core concepts of the philosophy
Nested movement: Cognition is understood through the dynamic, spatiotemporal trajectories of movement through different "landscapes" (physical, mental, virtual) rather than as a static process.
Holding paradox: Instead of resolving conflicting ideas or truths, waymaking philosophy embraces paradox to see beyond dualistic thinking, opening up new possibilities for understanding.
Narrative and story: There is a focus on narrative and story as crucial guides to understanding our lives, suggesting that "letting Story tell you" is a way to find meaning and agency.
Holistic and relational view: It moves away from a mechanistic worldview towards a more relational one, focusing on interconnectedness and participation over control and extraction.
Praxis: Waymaking is seen as a practice or praxis that involves critically examining one's own thinking and how it shapes their worldview and actions.
How it is applied
System and social change: To create systemic change, waymaking proposes that leaders must shift their own philosophy from a mechanistic to a relational way of seeing, focusing on a long-term, patient journey rather than a quick fix.
Personal and spiritual development: It offers a way to navigate challenges by finding "secret doors" and "allies" rather than solely relying on brute force or willpower, and re-enchanting one's life through narrative and symbolic meaning.
Interdisciplinary framework: The philosophy provides a unifying framework that can be applied across different fields, from neuroscience to social justice, by offering a common way to discuss complex phenomena like cognition or social systems.