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Ran Lahav (born April 17, 1954) is an Israeli-born American philosopher who developed philosophical activities for the general public. Since the early 1990s he has given workshops and retreats around the world, and published books and articles.^[1] Since the early 2010s he has been developing formats of philosophical contemplation, known as Deep Philosophy.^[2]

Ran Lahav received his bachelor's degree in philosophy and psychology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1988 he completed his PhD in philosophy at the University of Michigan with a doctoral thesis on the nature of subjective experience, as well as a master's degree in psychology.^[1][2]

In 1992, Lahav joined the then-nascent philosophical practice movement, which seeks to make philosophy relevant to individuals’ everyday lives.^[1] In 1993 he taught philosophical counseling at Haifa University,^[3] and in 1993 he initiated and co-organized the first international conference on philosophical counseling at the University of British Columbia,^[2][4] and edited the anthology Essays on philosophical counseling (1995), the first book in English in the field.^[1]

He has developed philosophical methods of self-transformation and contemplative forms of philosophizing (called Deep Philosophy) and used them in group activities.^[5] In 2017 he founded the Deep Philosophy Group in which participants contemplate together from their inner depth on short philosophical texts.^[6]

• Essays on Philosophical Counseling, Lanham: University Press of America, 1995. (Edited anthology with second editor Maria Tillmanns). ISBN 978-0819199737
• Stepping out of Plato’s Cave, Loyev Books, 2016. ISBN 978-0998133034
• Philosophical Contemplation, Loyev Books, 2018. ISBN 978-1947515949
• What is Deep Philosophy?, Loyev Books, 2021. ISBN 978-1947515093