Socrates cafe
Encyclopedia
Socratic method
The Socratic method , named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas...
. The groups model their discussions from the book of the same name by Christopher Phillips
Christopher Phillips
Christopher Phillips is an American author. He is best known for his 2001 book "Socrates Café", which as a model and guide has helped form Socrates Café groups around the world...
. Today, there are over 600 ongoing gatherings around the globe coordinated by hundreds of volunteers who share the common goal of making a more inclusive world.
History
The idea behind the Socrates Café is that we learn more when we question and question with others. It all started a decade ago when Christopher Phillips, then a freelance writer, asked himself what he could do that would in some modest way further the deeds of those noble souls who had come before him and, as William James put it, “suffered and laid down their lives” to better the lot of humankind? The epiphany and also the answer for him was to be a philosopher in the mold of Socrates, and to hold Socratic dialogues with anyone and everyone who’d like to engage in a common quest to gain a better understanding of human nature - who shared with him the aspiration of becoming more empathetic people and more objectively critical and creative philosophical inquirers. Phillips' idea of having open-invitation meetings in a cafe to discuss philosophy was inspired by Marc SautetMarc Sautet
Marc Sautet was a French writer, teacher, translator ), and philosopher. He was a Doctor of Philosophy ) at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. Sautet was a former Trotskyist who however edited two books on the German philosopher and philologist Friedrich Nietzsche...
, whose Café Philosophique
Café Philosophique
Café philosophique is a grassroots forum for philosophical discussion, founded by philosopher Marc Sautet in Paris, France....
Phillips joined after reading an article about Sautet in 1992.
A typical group meets in a public place, is open to anyone who wishes to attend, and uses the Socratic method
Socratic method
The Socratic method , named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas...
to discuss a question which is chosen by vote or which is announced shortly in advance. Typically there are no prerequisites, and no reading or other preparation is required.
Socratic Method
Janet Sisson, a philosophy professor at Mount Royal CollegeMount Royal College
Mount Royal University is a public university in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1910 as a primary and secondary school, Mount Royal became a post-secondary institution in 1931 as Mount Royal College offering transfer courses to the University of Alberta and later to the University of Calgary...
, has questioned the appropriateness of identifying the methods and goals practiced by Phillips with those of the historical Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
: "...the background for this enterprise [Socrates Café] is very different from that for the conversations of Socrates. Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
uses the figure of Socrates as a way of introducing the idea of intellectual discussion in order to promote the pursuit of truth, not as a path for personal discovery. ...To treat opportunities for dialogue as a means of self-discovery is a modern attitude, not the aim of Socrates own original dialectic. American scholars have sometimes encouraged this reading of Socratic endeavors; Phillips' fondness for this line of argument perhaps owes more to idealist or existentialist
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
thinking than to Socrates himself."
Philosopher Thomas Morris
Thomas V. Morris
Thomas V. Morris, also known as Tom Morris is an American philosopher. He is a former Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, founder of the Morris Institute of Human Values, and author of several books...
has praised the Socrates Cafe concept of good discussion about important topics by common people.
External links
- Socrates Café Official Website
- Socrates Café Minnesota
- Socrates Cafe Meetup Groups, For example, The Altadena Socrates Café is a southern California group which meets weekly in the summer and monthly other times of the year; The Denver Socrates Cafe is a Denver, Colorado group that meets each Thursday, 7 p.m., at Trinity Church, 19th & Broadway.
- International Alliance of Socrates Cafes http://www.meetupalliance.com/Socrates_Cafes
- Café, croissant ... and the meaning of life? report of French Café philo on Radio France Internationale in English