Philosophical Practice in Humanitarian Crises: Existential Ruptures and the “Way of Well-Being” Model

Abstract

This study considers how philosophical practice can address humanitarian crises such as forced displacement and natural disasters, beyond logistical and psychological interventions. Drawing on fieldwork with 137 survivors of the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes in Türkiye, it examines the existential ruptures caused by the loss of home, community, and bodily orientation. Guided by Heidegger’s concept of Geworfenheit, Spinoza’s conatus and affectus, and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, the research applies the “Way of Well-Being,” a five-stage model of Awareness, Analysis, Unity and Integrity, Choice, and Sustainability. Findings indicate that philosophical group sessions foster emotional expression, conceptual clarity, bodily reintegration, and renewed agency. Rather than offering abstract consolation, philosophy here becomes an embodied, dialogical, and relational framework for meaning reconstruction. Addressing ontological dislocation emerges as essential for sustainable post-crisis recovery. The study positions philosophy not as a luxury but as an ethical necessity in humanitarian response, enabling survivors to transform rupture into a space of reorientation and re-creation.