What we’re about
Café Philo is a way of meeting interesting, inquiring people who enjoy talking about life's big issues and conundrums in a convivial atmosphere.
We discuss a wide range of topics that include: the way we live our lives, ethics, current affairs and topical social issues. We aim to have one topic per month with up to 12 people in a discussion. A facilitator gently steers the discussion to help keep things moving, interesting and balanced.
Our discussions are non-party-political and free of religious or ideological dogma (most of the time at least). We encourage a healthy mix of the serious and humorous, so you can be guaranteed a lively, stimulating and fun evening. Our meetings are discussions - not debates, and certainly not arguments. We try to be respectful of everyone's point of view, even if we don't agree with them.
The group isn't aimed at academics or experts - just ordinary people from a variety of backgrounds who share a common interest in exchanging ideas about things which matter in life and meeting like-minded people. So if you're a heavy-duty philosopher you may find this group a bit lightweight. For anybody else, come along and get stuck into a decent conversation over a coffee or beer.
In addition to our regular discussions, we'll arrange some purely social evenings as well.
About the organiser: I've been running Cafe Philo in Bristol for over 10 years. I've now moved to Bromley. Let's see if there is sufficient interest to form a local group here.
It is free to attend our events. I run this group on a not-for-profit basis. However Meetup charge fees for using their platform so periodically I ask for donations to cover these costs. Regulars are asked to donate £10 per year if they can.
Upcoming events (1)
See all- How Relative is Truth?The George Inn, London
Café Philo is a way of meeting interesting, inquiring people who enjoy talking about life's big issues and conundrums in a convivial atmosphere, rather than a heavy-duty philosophy seminar. Read more about our approach here.
This month’s discussion will delve into how and why we come to believe what we believe?
We are increasingly sceptical of the media, politicians, statistics, doctors, religious leaders, academics, even scientists. Instead, many people now place more weight on social media and peer group opinion, despite their unreliability. Many of us live in bubbles which share “our” truth. Is “truth” either fundamentally relative, or at best unknowable? If so, is our best course to just pick whichever version takes our fancy?
What can we rely on? Is Wikipedia the fount of all knowledge? Does the non-specialist stand any chance of discerning truth without the help of "experts"? If not, which experts should we trust? Should we (or the media) give “scientific opinion” more weight? And if so, which “scientists” do we trust? How useful is the dumbed down “pragmatic truth” we tend to be fed by the media? (Things like “you need to eat 5 servings of fruit and veg per day”.)
In many interesting and important cases the true facts seem either unknown, or too complex to be neatly distilled into tasty sound bites which can be served up by the media. Real experts tend to surround their expertise with so many ifs, buts, and warnings not to extrapolate, that most of us have lost interest before they get to the point. Truth is often complicated and nuanced – anathema for mainstream media and public information services, aiming at consumers with minimal attention span.
In areas less amenable to experimental testing, such as history, economics and politics, “truth” is even more debatable. We are left in a sea of opinions and vested interests, some more plausible than others. Where should we turn for our information?
We will examine these issues in the context of three questions:
- What do we mean by "truth" and how does it contrast with "reality", "facts", "knowledge" and "beliefs"?
- How can non-specialists determine how likely something is to be "true" in daily life?
- What things (if any) can we ever know to be true with confidence and correctness?
For those wanting to do some preparation, suggested reading/browsing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth gives an overview of philosophical approaches.
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-truth-relative/ an essay relevant to our discussion
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth/ a deeper dive into the philosophy of truthIs it true that we can sort this out before last orders? I rather doubt it, but it will be interesting to try. Come and share your views in a friendly relaxed atmosphere.
NOTE: I've limited the discussion to 12 people to ensure we have a manageable group for a pub conversation. If you sign up for a place and later find you can't come, PLEASE change your RSVP to NO.
