Petru Stefaroi

Philosophy and Social Work Petru Stefaroi

In this book it is brought to attention and is analyzed the complex and delicate relationship between philosophy and social work/welfare, between the philosophical system of concepts and ideas and the theory/axiology of social work/welfare, especially from a humanistic perspective, bringing face to face, on the one hand, the great branches or sub-domains of philosophy, respectively ontology, ethics, social philosophy, personology, and, on the other hand, the great sub-domains or issues of social work/welfare, respectively the way of representation of the client and of the social problem (difficult situation, risk situation, vulnerability, resilience, etc.), the system of constitutive values and principles, the way of representation of the professional and the specific practice/methodology, etc. The relation between philosophy and social work is, no doubt, biunivocal. philosophy encompasses, in its purpose and history, the "social" issue/dimension, in its broader human sense, especially with the preoccupations in the sphere of ethics and social philosophy, but also of the existentialist-humanistic and humanistic-personalist philosophies, as the, social work, as general theory and axiology, cannot be conceived without a consistent philosophical representation. Both the system of fundamental values and the mission or methodology of social work/welfare are, most often, stated in the terms of an explicit applied social, ethical and humanistic philosophy, even if not always this aspect it is highlighted in an assumed way. An important observation that must to be done is that the author does not proposes in his book (and nor does it accomplish) an exhaustive, profound and complete approach and exposure of the relation, connection - from a humanistic point of view - between philosophy and social work/welfare, between their sub-domains, but only he brings into attention this subject, this theme, very little approached in the literature in relation to its indisputable importance. Regarding the destination of this paper, its design, content and bibliography are made in such a way that to be useful both to the academic community, to students and teachers in philosophy and social sciences and practices, and also to the professional community, to social workers, psychotherapists, educators, social managers, etc.