A philosopher who teaches at Douglas College, facilitates public dialogue, and practices philosophy one-on-one — bridging academic rigour and lived philosophy.
A Working Biography
Michael Picard, PhD (MIT) — author of How to Play Philosophy (Hamilton Books, 2022); editor and translator of Café Conversations: Participatory Philosophy in Public Spaces (Rock’s Mills, 2025); and translator of Gerd B. Achenbach’s Philosophical Praxis (Bloomsbury, 2024) and his forthcoming On Right in a Wrong World (Bloomsbury, 2027) — founded and ran Café Philosophy in Victoria, Canada weekly for twelve years. Picard is the creator of virtual infrastructure for civil discourse, the web app, Tug of Logic, which makes a serious game of public particularity philosophy.
Michael Picard, PhD (MIT), teaches Eastern and Western philosophy at Douglas College in Vancouver, BC.
“Philosophy is not about having the right answers — it's about learning to ask better questions.”— Michael Picard
Philosophy as Liberation
Most of what we believe, we believe because we absorbed it — from culture, family, media, and social contagion. Very little of our thinking is genuinely our own.
Michael calls these inherited structures 'zombie metaphors' — figurative language that moves us without our awareness. He helps you see them, name them, and choose what to do with them.
The result is not a new worldview imposed from outside, but a more honest, more flexible relationship with your own mind.
Examine Inherited Thinking
Question what you've absorbed from culture, family, and media without conscious choice.
Identify Zombie Metaphors
Become aware of the figurative language that moves you without your awareness and decide what to do with it.
Develop Mental Freedom
Build a more honest, flexible relationship with your own mind and thinking patterns.