3rd ICPP: New York, USA, July 22-25, 1997

Organizer: Lou Marinoff

BIO OF LOU MARINOFF

Lou Marinoff — a Commonwealth Scholar originally from Canada—is Professor of Philosophy and Asian Studies at The City College of New York, founding President of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA), and Editor of APPA's Journal. He began counseling clients at the University of British Columbia in 1991, and co-organized the First International Conference on Philosophical Practice at UBC in 1994. Lou has authored several international bestsellers—notably Plato Not Prozac, translated into twentyseven languages—that apply philosophy to the resolution of everyday problems. The New York Times Magazine called him “the world’s most successful marketer of philosophical counseling.” Lou collaborates with global organizations that contribute to building cultures of peace, prosperity and harmony – Biovision (Lyon), Ducere (Canberra), Festival of Thinkers (Abu Dhabi), Horasis (Zurich), Soka Gakkai International (Tokyo), Strategic Foresight Institute (Mumbai), and the World Economic Forum (Davos).

About the 3rd ICPP

The Third International Conference on Philosophical Practice was a resounding success. Held in New York City during the summertime, it billed world-leading practitioners on the marquee and drew a record number of participants. It also attracted the attention of an influential journalist named Alex Kuczynski, who became so fascinated by the movement that she spent several days at the conference, attending many presentations and interviewing a number of participants. She ended up writing a highly favorable piece, which landed on the front page of The Observatory— the features section of the New York Observer. While hardly as widelyread as The New York Times, the New York Observer nonetheless circulates among culture-makers themselves: American and foreign journalists, book publishers, film-makers, and the intelligentsia count among its core subscribers. Alex titled her landmark article "Plato or Prozac?", and portrayed philosophical counseling as a very hip movement. Her feature precipitated a torrent of mainstream newspaper and magazine articles, coastto-coast in the USA as well as internationally. She also inspired the title for Lou Marinoff's 1999 book Plato Not Prozac, which became an international bestseller. In sum, the Third ICPP launched philosophical practice into orbit, a trajectory in which it continues to circulate and flourish.