The Transformative Philosophical Dialogue - From Classical Dialogues to Jiddu Krishnamurti's Method

This book explores dialogue as a transformative form of philosophical practice by unveiling the method behind the unique dialogue developed by mystic and thinker Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986). While Krishnamurti himself generally rejected the cultivation of systems and techniques, Shai Tubali argues that there are easily identifiable patterns through which Krishnamurti strove to realize his dialogical aims. For this reason, he refers to this method, whose existence has evaded Krishnamurti's followers and scholars alike, as the Krishnamurti dialogue. He suggests that these discursive patterns serve to broaden our understanding of the possibilities of philosophical and religious dialogues and further illuminate established forms of dynamic discourse, such as the Socratic method.   
Inspired by Pierre Hadot's revolutionary reading of the classical Greco-Roman texts, the author centers his attention on Plato's Socratic dialogues and the guru-disciple conversations in the Hindu Upanishads, which fall within the scope of what may be termed 'the transformative dialogue': dialogues that have been written with the intention of bringing about a transformation in the mind of the interlocutor and reader and reorienting their way of life. This text appeals to students as well as researchers and suggests that the Krishnamurti dialogue is not only a continuation and development of the transformative dialogue, but that it also amalgamates ingredients of classical Western philosophy and South Asian mysticism. Moreover, this type of dialogue encourages readers to revisit the lost practice of transformative philosophy, in that it reveals new pathways of philosophical and religious inquiry that bear thought-provoking practical implications. 

Shai Tubali is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, UK. He has a doctorate in philosophy of religion from the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science at the University of Leeds. He is the author of the monograph Cosmos and Camus: Science Fiction Film and the Absurd (Peter Lang) and a contributor to the upcoming Routledge Companion to Absurdist Literature and a prolific published author since 1996, who has written more than twenty books, including award-winning and bestselling titles, which have appeared in 12 languages. Among his diverse publications, one can find prose, poetry, practical books on meditation and self-development, as well as philosophical treatises on South-Asian philosophy and classical Greek philosophy.