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What we’re about

Currently not meeting due to COVID Restrictions. We will post when we will resume meetings. Thank you for your patience and stay safe!


You do not need to be a meetup member to attend our meetings. If our group's member list is full, you may still join us at Ridgedale Library every week.

When was the last time you could discuss your thoughts openly and honestly with others? Have you ever questioned society and it's assumptions or your own? Do you like to have a good, safe discussion without fear of being attacked for having an opinion that is different? This is the purpose of Socrates Café. Here we are, a group of individuals, who like to talk. We come from all walks of life, all nationalities, all religions, all political views, both genders. We come from North, East, South and West. We get together and discuss what is on our minds, from something on the news that day to the age old questions of "What is ...?" We want to help you learn how to think, not what to think. Our group started November 1, 2001 at the Ridgedale Library and Government building. Our group is the longest running known Socrates Cafe in Minnesota and one of the longest running in the US. Socrates Café groups are based on a set of books written by Christopher Phillips, author and co-founder of The Society for Philosophical Inquiry and Democracy Cafe. Chris developed the idea of Socrates Café to do as Socrates did, bring philosophy to the every day individual. Philosophy is not only for the college graduate student, or the "highly intellectual" people who seem to know a lot about everything. Even the dictionary doesn't confine it to them. Philosophy is the "love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline" according to the American Heritage dictionary.