ABQ Socrates Café

The goal is for people from different backgrounds to get together and exchange philosophical perspectives and questions that are both timely and timeless in nature based on their experiences. It involves collaborative argumentative dialogue between the participants by asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to discover the ideas and underlying presuppositions.

Behaviors That Support Dialogue

• Suspension of judgment while listening and speaking. When we listen and suspend judgment, we open the door to expanded understanding. When we speak without judgment, we open the door for others to listen to us.
• Respect for differences. Our respect is grounded in the belief that everyone has an essential contribution to make and is to be honored for the perspective which only they can bring.
• Role and status suspension. Again, in dialogue, all participants and their contributions are absolutely essential to developing an integrated whole view. No one perspective is more important than any other. Dialogue is about power with, versus power over or under.
• Balancing inquiry and advocacy. In dialogue we inquire to discover and understand one another’s perspectives and ideas, and we advocate to offer our own for consideration. The intention is to bring forth and make visible assumptions and relationships, and to gain new insight and understanding. We often tend to advocate to convince others of our positions. Therefore, a good place to start with this guideline is to practice bringing more inquiry into the conversation.
• Focus on learning. Our intention is to learn from each other, to expand our view and understanding, not to evaluate and determine who has the “best” view. When we are focused on learning, we tend to ask more questions, try new things. We are willing to disclose our thinking so that we can see both what is working for us and what we might want to change. We want to hear from all parties so that we can gain the advantage of differing perspectives.

source: https://capstone.unst.pdx.edu/sites/default/files/Dialogue%20and%20Debate_0.pdf

This group does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities.