A French-Israeli academic and a seasoned philosophical practitioner, Lydia is currently Associate Professor of philosophy at Beit Berl Academic College, Israel, and Visiting Professor, the Department of Philosophy at Tufts University in the United States. She also teaches in the Master Degree in Applied Philosophy at the University Vasco de Quiroga, in Mexico, and is Adjunct Researcher in the World Culture Development Forum: China and the World, based at Hubei University, in Wuhan University, China.

 

Until earning her Ph.D. in 1987, she taught six years at the philosophy department at Tel-Aviv University, followed by 27 years at the College of Management, Academic Studies, in Rishon Lezion, where she directed for a long time the Humanistic Studies Program at the School of Media Studies. She lectured in additional universities and colleges in Israel and abroad, where she is regularly invited to seminars and workshops, notably at the University of Rome 3 and the Institute of Philosophy at Vienna University.

 

Lydia has published extensively on ethics, the practice of philosophy, and humor, including over ninety peer-reviewed articles and essays, the books Humor and the Good Life in Modern Philosophy: Shaftesbury, Hamann, Kierkegaard (2014), Rethinking Philosophers’ Responsibility (2017) and Taking Philosophy Seriously (2018), and the anthologies she edited New Frontiers in Philosophical Practice (2017) and Practicing Philosophy (2015; with Aleksandar Fatic). She is currently working under contract on several additional manuscripts.

 

One of the pioneers of the international field of philosophical practice, Amir founded her practice in 1992, and participated in all the international conferences of Philosophical Practice, some of which she helped organize. She is active in various associations in the field: Honorarily certified by APPA (the American Philosophical Practitioners Association), Member of the Scientific Board of the International Society for Philosophical Practice (Wissenschaftliches Beirat der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Philosophische Praxis), Board Member of Agora: An International Forum for the Practice of Philosophy, and Board Member of the Master in Philosophical Practice, Societa Italiana di Counseling Filosofico (SICoF), in Rome, Italy, Lydia is Co-Founder of the (New) Israeli association for philosophical practice.

 

She is a member of the Scientific Board of Philosophical Practice: Journal of the APPA and The Journal of Humanities Therapy, among other academic journals. The Founding-President of the International Association for the Philosophy of Humor, she is Editor of The Israeli Journal of Humor Research: An International Journal, Founding-Editor of The Philosophy of Humor Yearbook (2020), and of the Book Series, De Gruyter Studies in Philosophy of Humor (2021).

 

Amir’s experience in Philosophical Practice includes working as a private consultant in organizations and businesses, as well as with groups, families, couples and individuals. She is also available for lectures, workshops and seminars, as well as for helping devise programs for the dissemination of philosophy to various audiences.

 

Her views on the role of the philosopher in society and on philosophical practice are explained in her 2017 and 2018 publications, now in paperbacks.

 

Amir, Lydia. 2017. Rethinking Philosophers’ Responsibility. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

 

Amir, Lydia. 2018. Taking Philosophy Seriously. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.