Ethics and ontological coaching

Rafael Echeverría

• Publisher: JC Sáez Editor
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9789563062212
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Language in Philosophy

The practice of ontological coaching finds its roots in the field of ethics, and has come of age there. Ethics provides the raison d'etre and objectives of ontological coaching. Almost inevitably, ontological coaching has led many of its practitioners to conclude that the greatest crisis facing men and women today, particularly in the Western world, is a crisis of ethics. To find our way out of this crisis we must revisit the foundations of our conception of what it means to be human. In this light, the ontological question becomes the most fundamental one we may ask. How we answer it will shape the way we view the world, those around us, and ourselves — in short, the way we view our lives. I have sought to answer this question through the discourse of the ontology of language, whose interpretation of the human experience underpins the practice of ontological coaching. One of its central premises holds that how we act is determined by who we are, but that we also become who we are through our actions. In this way, ontological coaching offers tools that help people to change, to become new human beings who are free from atavistic suffering, who are truly the authors of their own lives. It is the renewed sense of wholeness gained from ontological coaching that allows people to become true social agents capable of contributing to a better world, for themselves and for others.

Table of contents

• A Note on the Cover
• 1. The Centrality of the Domain of Ethics: The Crisis Humanity Faces Today
• 2. Suffering and Ineffectiveness
• 3. The Question of the Human Being
• 4. Nietzsche and the Return to Socrates
• 5. The Basic Premises of the Metaphysical Ontology
• 6. The Fundamental Elements of Modernity
• 7. Modernity’s Critique of the Metaphysical Ontology
• 8. The Period of Relative Stagnation after Nietzsche
• 9. Four Major Developments
• 10. The Anthropological Philosophy of Martin Buber
• 11. The Emergence of the Philosophy of Language
• 12. Advances in the Biological Sciences
• 13. Reflection on the Determinants of Human Action
• 14. Ethics Associated with the Notion of the Observer
• 15. Ethics Associated with the Notion of System
• 16. A New Scenario for a Conception of the Human Being from the Perspective of Transformation: The Challenges of Learning and Enterprise
• 17. Toward the Search for New Paths of Spirituality
• 18. The Notion of the Human Soul
• 19. The Mysterious Nature of the Human Soul
• 20. The Structure of What Is Possible
• 21. The Degree of Transformation
• 22. The Six Ethical-Emotional Dimensions of the Ontology of Language
• 23. Toward an Ethics of the Practice of Ontological Coaching
• 24. The Nature of the Practice of Ontological Coaching
• 25. The Plural and Multiple Character of the Human Soul: Person and Shadow
• 26. The Dialectics of the Human Soul
• 27. The Ontological Coach as a Midwife for the Development of the Human Soul
• 28. Ontological Coaching as a Purification of the Metaphysical Remnants of Our Common Sense
• 29. The Amoral Nature of the Practice of Ontological Coaching: The Coach as a Mirror for the Coachee
• 30. From the Ontological Clearing
• 31. The Role of Intuition
• 32. The Significance of Emotional Connection
• 33. Designing the Emotional Space of Coaching Interactions
• 34. The Power of Emotional Positivity and the Return to the Ethical-Emotional Dimensions
• 35. The Dark Origins of the Ontological Coaching Practice
• 36. The Failure of the “Transformational Learning Program”
• 37. The Ontological Coaching Process, Its Phases, and Its Presence in Interaction
• 38. The Absence of a Predetermined “Right” Path
• 39. Errors in the Practice of Ontological Coaching
• 40. What Really Defines Ontological Coaching? A Debate
• 41. Ontological Coaching as a Practice in a Private Space
• 42. The Privilege of Becoming an Ontological Coach