Learning Through Questioning

Never studied philosophy? Haven't read Nietzsche or Kierkegaard? Don't even know who they are? Then Socrates Café may be the philosophy group for you. It's an approach that takes philosophy "out of the ivory tower and back into the lives of ordinary people, where it belongs." Sessions have been held in cafés, coffee shops, senior centers, assisted-living complexes, prisons, libraries, day-care centers, elementary and high schools, and churches. It's where people from different backgrounds get together and exchange thoughtful ideas and experiences while embracing the central theme of Socratizing; the idea that we learn more when we question and question with others. ” http://www.philosopher.org/en/Socrates_Cafe.html

The aim with this inquiry is to create a more vibrant and participatory democracy and empathetic society. It is meant to be the exact opposite of the mindless types of debates and diatribes and polemics and which he/she who speaks the loudest and interrupts the most and browbeats the best and engages in the most frequent non-redemptive oneupsmanship "wins," whatever that could mean. Socrates Cafe is meant to cultivate new habits of discourse in which the primary purpose is to inspire each person within the community of inquiry further to cultivate and discover his/her unique point of view, nothing more and certainly nothing less.

Socrates Café all started with Christopher Phillips’ book by the same name. (Socrates Café is available through libraries, and other suppliers of books.)