The 16 essays selected for this collection are representative waypoints in three simultaneous journeys, still ongoing, that unfolded during the quarter century from 1994 to 2019. One journey is that of a pioneer of the burgeoning global movement of philosophical practice. Another journey is that of a free-thinking philosophy professor’s emigration from Canada to the USA, resistance to increasingly rancorous gender wars and culture wars, and humanistic response to their toxic ethos of political correctness and dehumanizing ideology of identity politics. The third journey is that of an internationally bestselling author of popular books on philosophy for everyday life, who as a result became a regular contributor to conferences of global leadership communities. These three simultaneous journeys give rise to the main threads from which the tapestry of this collection is woven.

Several reviewers of the anthology evinced an interest in knowing more of the autobiographical intellectual journey of this author, so as to contextualize the contents in some kind of coherent pattern, or to ascertain the ‘back-stories’ of their provenance. While this brief preface may only whet the appetite of such amicable curiosity in the short run, it might also engender deeper satisfaction in the longer run, just in case a future biographer takes up the fuller challenge. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the New Yorker magazine was toying with an intellectual biography, which in hindsight would have been premature. It is hoped that such a biography will remain premature for some time to come, at least until critical future missions will have been accomplished. Even so, a number of ‘in-depth’ interviews on philosophical practice, as well as more wide-ranging matters, have been published over the years.

Since the essays herein are presented in more-or-less chronological order of their original publication, a four-part taxonomy readily suggests itself: case studies, global essays, maieutic essays, and humanistic essays.

Group One, 1995–2000: Case Studies

This first group of four essays is concerned with case studies. Essay #1 recounts my first two philosophical counseling clients at the University of British Columbia (UBC). It marks my entry into and initial conception of the field. Essay #2 describes a most unusual client in my formative practice at The City College of New York.