Sócrates Café o Café Filosófico

En el año 2000, la Sociedad de Filosofía Aplicada de México (SOFIAM) inició con su Café Filosófico o Sócrates Café en la ciudad de Guadalajara, México siendo éste el primer café filosófico realizado en nuestro país. Impulsados y animados por el mismo Lou Marinoff nos dimos a la tarea de formar una comunidad de indagación en la cual la filosofía vernácula era el motor para discutir sobre los tópicos que en ese momento nos parecían de interés para cada uno de todos, para nuestra sociedad y además para pasar un buen rato en compañía de los amigos, un buen café o un buen vino.

Los Sócrates Cafés son espacios para la búsqueda de la verdad a partir de un diálogo racional estructurado que utiliza la meyéutica (de ahí su nombre Sócrates Café) como su método, en el cual cualquier persona de cualquier profesión, creencia, cultura, etc., puede participar. La idea u objetivo central es reflexionar de forma comunitaria, no únicamente en busca de respuestas sino en busca de preguntas, temas de interés de tal forma que entre todos los participantes se logre construir un criterio que nos ayude a  interactuar de mejor modo con la realidad y la vida cotidiana. Se suele afirmar que se trata de volver la vida más apasionada a través de la reflexión en la búsqueda de la certeza.

El ambiente debe ser de respeto, cordialidad, humildad, lejos de toda soberbia intelectual pues no se trata de dar lecciones ni tampoco es el momento para que de forma individual se den indoctrinamientos ni proselitismos de ningún tipo. La dinámica se da a través de un moderador quien se asegura de que nadie acapare el micrófono y que todos tengan la oportunidad de expresar sus forma de pensar. Tampoco hay discursos correctos o incorrectos, verdaderos o falsos. La comunidad de indagación sigue el principio de que la verdad se construye de manera conjunta, puesto que la realidad es algo que escapa a un solo intelecto y ésta es mejor si es revisada entre muchas cabezas, de este modo es cierto que la realidad no se construye pero el conocimiento de ella sí. Para lo cual no hay que ser grandes conocedores, si no más bien grandes observadores. El café filosófico no inicia con la postura o un conocimiento previo, sino que se va conformando, de ahí que la democracia y el consenso son valores fundamentales para su realización por lo que el café además promueve valores ciudadanos mismos que hoy en día son tan mencionados.

El Café Filosófico es así un sistema de democratización del saber en el que todos aprendemos de todos y todos enseñamos a los demás.

Vuelven los Cafés Filosóficos

Una taza de café, un grupo de personas y muchas ganas de conversar. Son los únicos requisitos para convertirte en participante de la última moda mundial: los cafés filosóficos.

Si Sócrates levantara la cabeza no estaría del todo insatisfecho al comprobar como los llamados filocafés se han extendido de un modo tan éxitoso recuperando la vieja costumbre de hablar de los grandes temas de la vida alrededor de una mesa.

A pesar de las incesantes críticas sobre la falta de interés o compromiso general con las temáticas que a diario afectan a nuestra vida, la vida intelectual sigue renovándose constantemente. Hacerlo mediante la recuperación de debates públicos al estilo de los antiguos foros de opinión es una noticia excelente.

El boom de los cafés filosóficos reaparece en París, a principio de los años 90. El padre de la idea fue el filósofo francés Marc Sautet, que la puso en práctica en 1992 en el café parisino El Faro, cerca de la plaza de la Bastilla. Desde entonces ha llovido mucho y el movimiento ha ido extendiéndose por todo el mundo, a pesar de que en España los filocafés se han hecho esperar pues hace apenas 3 años que se llevan a cabo. En la actualidad Francia cuenta con la friolera de más de 300 cafés filosóficos. En España Madrid, Barcelona y Sevilla son las ciudades con más actividad llegando incluso a especializarse en temáticas y asistentes.

Librerías como la Casa del libro de Sevilla, bibliotecas públicas o bares son los lugares de reunión más típicos. Los libros son fundamentales en estas reuniones pero, sobre todo, se le quiere dar un sentido práctico y dinámico. La filosofía del movimiento es actuar más que divagar.

Pocas ciudades se resisten ya a esta moda. Perú, Buenos aires, Argentina, México,… los filocafés han llegado para quedarse.

Filosofía vernácula e informal para todos

A partir del renacimiento experimentado por la filosofía desde la década de los 80’s, principalmente en Europa y después en Estados Unidos, los diversos círculos académicos, intelectuales, culturales y artísticos han ido aportando diversos esquemas que propicien un “aterrizaje”- al terreno del común de la gente- de los conceptos filosóficos.

Como todos sabemos, la filosofía no es privativa del terreno académico, sino que más bien matiza y dirige todas las acciones que diariamente realizamos. Incluso tenemos una filosofía para  las cosas más cotidianas: “siempre he pensado que la comida oriental es esencialmente mejor que la italiana” o “Prefiero los productos naturales que no dañen el medio ambiente”.

Nos gusta recordar que  los primeros filósofos – especialmente en la Grecia antigua- desarrollaron sus interesantes conceptos en un marco de divertidas discusiones y controversias, llevadas a cabo en lugares públicos, incluso al aire libre, donde participaba cualquier ciudadano común. Estos lugares fueron conocidos como ágora. Los temas eran inagotables y aún conservan su vigencia: ¿quién es el hombre? ¿Qué cosa es el cosmos? O simplemente, porqué amamos lo que amamos.

Sócrates Café es un marco más para la filosofía, esta vez  en una faceta moderna: el café. Es en ésta tradicional forma de reunión donde ampliamente se puede dar -en palabras del filósofo neoyorkino Lou Marinoff – “la última encarnación del ágora”.

A continuaciones algunas características del Sócrates Café en contraste con una reunión común:

Reunión Normal	Sócrates café
Se festeja o conmemora algo o a alguien	Se festeja la filosofía en colectividad
Alguno puede acaparar la atención	Todos deben participar
Se habla sin límite de tiempo	HAY UN LIMITE DE TIEMPO PARA HABLAR
Puede haber participación pasiva	Se  participa activamente
Se reúnen, se come, mientras se opina	Se reúnen, opinan, mientras se come
Cuestionar a alguien es falta de educación	No cuestionar a alguien es falta de educación
Hay un festejado o anfitrión	Hay un rol de coordinadores
Ha todo mundo se le olvida de qué platicó	Se vale tomar apuntes de lo que se considere valioso o se les olvida todo…

Existe un perfil que debe  tener un Sócrates café para funcionar:

• Es un ambiente de respeto mutuo
• Hay tolerancia a cualquier ideología u opinión dentro de un marco de amistad
•  Hay  que recordar que la controversia es el arte de saber cambiar de opinión
• Se debe tomar en cuenta la autoridad del coordinador en turno, aún si éste tiene un estilo suave
• La crítica deberá ser constructiva
• Toda opinión vale y es digna de ser oída
• No se está cambiando el mundo
• No se está organizando ningún grupo o partido
• Es un círculo para fomentar la capacidad de razonar y de comprender a los demás
• No pueden participar niños
• Se debe cooperar con la casa anfitriona
• Se deberá proponer temas de discusión.
• El que se enoja, pierde.

Socrates Café – Manifesto

Civil conversation isn’t enough. Formulating the right questions isn’t enough.

What the world needs now on all sorts of levels is inquiry – methodical, egalitarian, inclusive, impassioned, unsettling, exhilarating.

Inquiry driven by curiosity, by a sense that the more perspectives the better.

Inquiry that leads to the surprising, the novel, the unfamiliar — that opens portals to new possibilities to who we might be as individuals and as a society.

Inquiry that is based on the premise that people of all ages and walks of life count and that those often left out tend to be the most uncommonly perceptive, when given the opportunity.

Inquiry that emphatically includes and values the wisdom ways of our children and youth, who have a vital and central role to play if our societies are really going to become all they can be, and deserve rights to participation and self-determination.

Inquiry that taps into our childlike questioning lenses. Inquiry that connects us, that makes us feel we’re in this together.

That as a matter of course leads us to discover the glaring gaps and contradictions (when they exist) between what we say and what we do, and what open societies profess and what they actually practice — and that inspires us to bring our promise more and more into practice.

Inquiry that is the furthest thing from argument and debate — that is all about exploration, about discovering uncommon common ground, that leads us to realize, in a sort of epiphany or series of epiphanies, that we need each other, that whether we have multiple doctorate degrees or have never set foot in the hallowed halls of formal institutions of learning, we each have unique experiences, perspectives, stores of wisdom from which we all could benefit.

Socratic inquiry.  Or to be more precise: A version of Socratic inquiry that recognizes there are no neat divides between the individual self and the societal self, between our inner cosmos and outer cosmos.

The Greeks of old knew this and tapped into it in a way that led, during their Golden Days, when democracy flourished in the polis, and in the agoras — the public places and spaces of the polis, or city-state.

Inquiry that challenges the ‘common sense wisdom’ of the day, and scrutinizes whether it’s really all that wise.

That recognizes that we humans have it within us to cultivate a democratic self — an open and connected self, a childlike self, curious, inquisitive, constructively skeptical, with a keen social conscience, autonomous, a work in progress,

Enter Socrates Cafe.

The modern term democracy is a blend of two ancient Greek words — demos,, ”people,’ and kratia, ‘power.’

What better way to get democratic and cultivate ‘people power’ than to create opportunities for people of all walks of life to gather together and explore all the right questions.

But you need the tools not only to formulate powerful and potent questions — ones that can revolutionize our sense of who we can be and what we can accomplish as individuals and as a society. — you also need a genuine method for exploring them for all they’re worth.

Enter Socrates Cafe.

Socrates Café is all about making ours, on local and global scales, an inclusive, thoughtful and participatory society where regular exchanges of ideas and ideals among diverse people take place. — all with the aim of creating more and more people power. Our initiatives make it possible for people to approach one another with greater openness, and less fear. They cultivate connectedness, and forge bonds that can galvanize diverse people to take unified action for a greater good..

Our goal is to inspire curiosity and wonder, to nurture self-discovery, and democracy, with a strong emphasis on advancing the equal right to self-determination of our youngest citizens..

Our vision isn’t just about facilitating good conversation. “It’s grass-roots democracy,” Democracy Café founder and executive director Christopher Phillips, PhD, a foremost specialist in the Socratic Method, told Time magazine. “It’s only in a group setting that people can hash out their ideas about how we should act not just as an individual but as a society.”

Our signature initiatives include the global Socrates Café movement — and its kindred version, Philosophers’ Club, for our youngest, as well as Constitution Café, Democracy Café, Declaration Project, First Amendment Conversations with Cops, and Design your Democracy. These programs have touched tens of thousands across the world. Many of have been replicated across the country, and in places Australia, India and Japan, among populations that crave meaningful discourse that galvanize more direct civic engagement.

Our newest undertaking, The Declaration Project, celebrates the spirit of all Declarations that strive to make ours a more open and inclusive world. It gives people of all ages and walks of life the chance to connect with their revolutionary heritage, to discover their political voice, and to take action.

The website for the Declaration Project aims to display the largest collection of Declarations in one online location, and will give people a transformative place to share and formalize their individual convictions. It also provides a forum for engaging in exchanges to discover ‘uncommon common ground’ that can galvanize diverse people into taking unified action.

As the Los Angeles Times notes, ours are “orchestrated discussions on … Solomonic topics at nursing homes, maximum-security prisons, churches, homeless shelters, bookstores and coffeehouses across the country, gently prodding students, urban professionals, unreconstructed slackers, street people and others to share their world-views and scrutinize their most basic assumptions.”

Those who take part rekindle their passion for inquiry –and “not about any chance question,” as Socrates put it in Plato’s Republic, “but about the way one should live.”

Socrates Café

Launched twenty years ago by our founder Christopher Phillips, Socrates Café has gone on to become an oasis of reasonableness in a desert of rising intolerance and fundamentalism around the world — from Montana to Mumbai, Portland to Tokyo. Hundreds of groups now convene far and wide in public places and spaces, including cyberspace, but also in bricks and mortar locales like schools, churches, community centers, nursing homes, prisons, shelters for homeless families, libraries.

Those who take part in Socrates Cafés share the sensibility of the fifth century BC philosopher Socrates that continual close encounters with others of a philosophical kind, engaging in impassioned yet thoughtful exchanges of ideas and ideals, is a portal to sculpting what the Greeks of old called Arête —all-around excellence, of a sort that is an individual and collective pursuit rolled into one.

As motley people break philosophical bread together on a regular basis, close connections are often forged among the strangest bedfellows. If you were a fly on the wall at one of these gatherings, you’d see that Socrates Café-goers in action are an inquisitive, open, curious, and playful bunch —childlike, in a word. Christopher fond of saying that Socrates Café is for “children of all ages,” because these gatherings bring out our innate inquisitiveness and sense of wonder. 

When Christopher Phillips began Socrates Cafe in 1996, he did so after asking 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 critical and creative thinkers and doers.

Today, there are hundreds of ongoing gatherings around the globe coordinated by hundreds of dedicated volunteers who are deeply committed to making ours a more participatory and inclusive world.

Socratic Cafés

Definition

The Socratic Café (also known as Socrates Café) is a democratic discussion forum based on the more commonly known Socratic Method, which focuses its intentions on being an open system that allows for philosophical questioning. An unofficial mantra describing both is that we (people) learn more when we question, and question with others. Socrates Cafés are trademarked in connection with the Philosopher’s Club, and have facilitators officially trained in the method. There are over 600 official Socrates Cafés held all over the world but the Socratic Café method is used outside of the endorsed name.

Socratic Cafés are related to Conversation Cafes, World Cafes, and Kitchen Table Conversations.

History

Socrates Cafés were started by someone by the name of Christopher Phillips who wanted to keep Socrates’ legacy alive, and knew that there was always more to discover about life through discussion. The best way he found to do that was to create a place where people could come and be challenged and encouraged to search for a deeper understanding of humankind. Phillips now travels around the world and helps start and facilitate Socrates Cafés. He says that the way Americans go about discussions—talking over each other and not listening—have already taken a toll on our society. One of the points of his decision to start up Socrates Cafés was to create an environment where the question is almost more important than the answer. Socrates Cafés are open to anyone who is looking for answers and is curious about Phillips’ own philosophy that “what you say and think and do generally matters and counts… it is vital and incumbent for you to take an important role in society during your mortal moment.”

Influences

The Socratic Method is the major contributor to the formation of Socrates Cafés and what influenced Phillips to create them in the first place. Socratic dialogue is able to show us how people actually view concepts or issues—everyday ones and more abstract as well. The Socratic Method encourages participants to ask, “what does this mean?” “What speaks for and against it?” “Are there alternative ways of considering it that are even more plausible and tenable?” An example might be if a question asks, “How can we overcome racism?” Thinking socratically, one might ask if we always want to overcome racism. Are there different types or levels of racism? Are all of the forms ones we want to overcome? What has been of controversy previously, is if Phillips actually follows Socrates in is attempts to provide a forum for the public. Many argue that his thinking is more along the lines of idealist or existentialist than purely socratic.

Process

In creating a Socrates Café group, one must make sure that they are following all of the procedures and methods spelled out by the Philosopher’s club and are representing the specific non-profit, community-creating purposes that they are intended to. The first step to having a good Socrates Café, or an event similar, is finding a good venue. There aren’t highly specific requirements but should be in a place where discussion can go on, without large interruption. Cafés are a great place (hence the name) but the seminars can function in places such as bookstores, community centers, coffee shops etc. Second to the process is making sure that there is one singular facilitator, and that they know their responsibilities. The facilitator is there to make sure that everyone has the chance to speak and makes sure everything remains respectful. One thing that they do not do is choose the subject or question on which the group should deliberate on. They do make sure there is a consensus, but it is not their job to provide that for the group. To try and start picking a question seems like a daunting task, but there are a few tips to try and make it easier for your group (from a facilitator’s perspective). Firstly, all ideas for discussion questions should be voiced and written down somewhere so everyone can see. Then people can vote for as many of the questions they feel most interested in pursuing. Ask participants to keep in mind what question challenges them most, because that is what leads to enlightening discussion. After taking the highest few, you can pick your winner by giving everyone one vote and finding the highest voted for question. If you’re thinking Socratically, you aren’t quite ready to start a full-fledged discussion. As a facilitator, you must start probing for built-in assumptions surrounding or within the question, as well as embedded concepts. A really good example of the kinds of questions Socrates Cafés aim to pose comes from an example off of the official Philosopher Club website. It says that “a group of Socrates Café-goers wanted to examine the so-called “gay marriage issue” in a philosophical way, in a way that wouldn’t just lead to a knockdown drag-out debate of non-redemptive putting people down and showing them up, but a way that could really examine the issue thoughtfully, and also in a way in which gay marriage was looked at in the broader context of the institution of marriage as a whole, the question was framed this way: ‘What is an excellent marriage?’” Groups will generally have a dialogue for about an hour. It is suggested that each Café be around two hours long with a short break in the middle. The time guidelines are very loose and do not mean that every Socrates Café needs to be two hours exactly. One more important fact is that the purpose of a Socrates Café is not to reach a conclusion, but to become more informed and accepting. A facilitator or other participants never should be forcing a conclusion.

Outcomes and Effects

Many discussion forums’ purpose is to find a consensus on the issue/topic/question discussed. This is because the general idea is for citizens to deliberate and determine a course of action to take to some local authority so that their voices can be heard. This, however, is not the goal of a Socrates Café. The Socrates Cafés are designed for participants to learn how to question and think for themselves, and to delve into concepts in different ways than they have before. It is not only not required, but is a rule of Socrates Cafés that groups do not force a conclusion to their deliberation. The Cafés really do try and have a feel of self-improvement and wellbeing as opposed to solving an issue that is not applicable to the participants themselves.

Extra Information

Something that isn’t that commonly known about the Socrates Cafés is that it is encouraged to have more than one facilitator. This is encouraged because most of the time, facilitators are going to be respectful and follow the guidelines of the group they are leading. It is helpful to have more than one for reasons other than keeping the Café respectful though. Having more than one facilitator ensures that the Socrates Café experience remains fresh and not stale. It also makes sure that when conversation is at a lull, or there is a heated debate, that different people can mix it up and offer their perspective on the situation while remaining calm and objective. Another thing about facilitating a Socrates Café is that while you are allowed to offer up your own opinions and perspectives on the matter in which the discussion is being held on, it is important to not get extremely radical. This is because as a facilitator, you are supposed to be someone who is protecting everyone’s right to speak their minds, and if they are offended by your ideas, it is going to make them less likely to share, as well as put on the defensive and they might shut down all together.

Socrates Café

​Socrates Café are gatherings around the world 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. 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 critical and creative philosophical inquirers.

Today, there are over 600 ongoing gatherings around the globe coordinated by hundreds of dedicated volunteers who are deeply committed to making ours a more participatory and inclusive world.

Socrates Café, McAllen, TX.

This is a group for people who like to meet for a couple of hours in a relaxed atmosphere and talk (or just listen) about big ideas, mostly by asking questions and refining them. It is free, open for everyone and follows the common format of Socrates Cafes around the world. But most important it is just fun… of course, for those who actually enjoy intelligent conversations and can’t live without examining reality, society and life. The idea is to bring philosophy to the masses, to start socializing and form community of inquiry in process. This is exactly what Socrates-style of philosophy is about, but in practical terms it simply means a discussion group with emphases on questions, not the answers (which makes it different from university philosophy courses, self-help books and political/religious/new age movements). There are no speakers, no gurus, no high-minded monologues, no arrogant “experts” with indecipherable jargon and monopoly on right answers, no homework and no preparation. It is just and exchange of opinions on selected topic by simple (and not so simple 🙂 people. It is inherently democratic place where your opinion is on equal terms with the ones expressed by Nietzsche, Socrates or a guy around the corner… There is a moderator to channel conversation, loosely defined and very simple Socratic method of inquiry to guide participants and some basic rules: courtesy to others, observance of a topic of discussion and avoidance of any type of proselytism.

Café Sócrates

Una taza de café, un grupo de personas y muchas ganas de conversar. Son los únicos requisitos para convertirte en participante de los cafés filosóficos.
Café Sócrates son reuniones en todo el mundo en el que personas de diferentes procedencias se reúnen e intercambian ideas y experiencias reflexivas mientras abraza el tema central de “Socratizing”; la idea de que aprendemos más cuando se pregunta y pregunta con los demás.

Todo comenzó hace una década cuando Christopher Phillips, un escritor independiente, se preguntó qué podía hacer que de alguna manera modesta aún más las acciones de esas almas nobles que habían llegado antes que él y, como dijo William James, “que han sufrido y lo puso sus vidas “para mejorar la suerte de la humanidad? La epifanía, y también la respuesta para él iba a ser un filósofo en el molde de Sócrates, y para sostener diálogos socráticos con nadie y todo el que quisiera participar en la búsqueda conjunta para obtener una mejor comprensión de la naturaleza humana – que compartió con él la aspiración de convertirse en personas más empáticas y más críticos y creativos indagadores filosóficas.

Hoy en día, hay más de 600 reuniones en curso en todo el mundo, coordinado por cientos de voluntarios dedicados que están profundamente comprometidos a hacer del nuestro un mundo más participativo e inclusivo.

Aquí tenemos la intención de organizar nuestra propia Café Sócrates. Estas reuniones serán gratuitos y abiertos al público en general. Las normas para cada evento se explicó al comienzo de la discusión, y la cuestión para el debate decidió así.

Un Café Sócrates para hablar sólo Inglés, también se organizarán, además de la versión en español.

Comunicar su interés en el Café Sócrates ahora!

Socrates Café

​Socrates Café are gatherings around the world 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. 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 critical and creative philosophical inquirers.

Today, there are over 600 ongoing gatherings around the globe coordinated by hundreds of dedicated volunteers who are deeply committed to making ours a more participatory and inclusive world.

What is the Socratic Method?

excerpted from Socrates Café by Christopher Phillips

The Socratic method is a way to seek truths by your own lights.
It is a system, a spirit, a method, a type of philosophical inquiry an intellectual technique, all rolled into one.

Socrates himself never spelled out a “method.” However, the Socratic method is named after him because Socrates, more than any other before or since, models for us philosophy practiced – philosophy as deed, as way of living, as something that any of us can do. It is an open system of philosophical inquiry that allows one to interrogate from many vantage points.

Gregory Vlastos, a Socrates scholar and professor of philosophy at Princeton, described Socrates’ method of inquiry as “among the greatest achievements of humanity.” Why? Because, he says, it makes philosophical inquiry “a common human enterprise, open to every man.” Instead of requiring allegiance to a specific philosophical viewpoint or analytic technique or specialized vocabulary, the Socratic method “calls for common sense and common speech.” And this, he says, “is as it should be, for how man should live is every man’s business.”

I think, however, that the Socratic method goes beyond Vlastos’ description. It does not merely call for common sense but examines what common sense is. The Socratic method asks: Does the common sense of our day offer us the greatest potential for self-understanding and human excellence? Or is the prevailing common sense in fact a roadblock to realizing this potential?

Vlastos goes on to say that Socratic inquiry is by no means simple, and “calls not only for the highest degree of mental alertness of which anyone is capable” but also for “moral qualities of a high order: sincerity, humility, courage.” Such qualities “protect against the possibility” that Socratic dialogue, no matter how rigorous, “would merely grind out . . . wild conclusions with irresponsible premises.” I agree, though I would replace the quality of sincerity with honesty, since one can hold a conviction sincerely without examining it, while honesty would require that one subject one’s convictions to frequent scrutiny.

A Socratic dialogue reveals how different our outlooks can be on concepts we use every day. It reveals how different our philosophies are, and often how tenable – or untenable, as the case may be – a range of philosophies can be. Moreover, even the most universally recognized and used concept, when subjected to Socratic scrutiny, might reveal not only that there is not universal agreement, after all, on the meaning of any given concept, but that every single person has a somewhat different take on each and every concept under the sun.

What’s more, there seems to be no such thing as a concept so abstract, or a question so off base, that it cant be fruitfully explored at Socrates Café. In the course of Socratizing, it often turns out to be the case that some of the most so-called abstract concepts are intimately related to the most profoundly relevant human experiences. In fact, it’s been my experience that virtually any question can be plumbed Socratically. Sometimes you don’t know what question will have the most lasting and significant impact until you take a risk and delve into it for a while.

What distinguishes the Socratic method from mere nonsystematic inquiry is the sustained attempt to explore the ramifications of certain opinions and then offer compelling objections and alternatives. This scrupulous and exhaustive form of inquiry in many ways resembles the scientific method. But unlike Socratic inquiry, scientific inquiry would often lead us to believe that whatever is not measurable cannot be investigated. This “belief” fails to address such paramount human concerns as sorrow and joy and suffering and love.

Instead of focusing on the outer cosmos, Socrates focused primarily on human beings and their cosmos within, utilizing his method to open up new realms of self-knowledge while at the same time exposing a great deal of error, superstition, and dogmatic nonsense. The Spanish-born American philosopher and poet George Santayana said that Socrates knew that “the foreground of human life is necessarily moral and practical” and that “it is so even so for artists” – and even for scientists, try as some might to divorce their work from these dimensions of human existence.

Scholars call Socrates’ method the elenchus, which is Hellenistic Greek for inquiry or cross-examination. But it is not just any type of inquiry or examination. It is a type that reveals people to themselves, that makes them see what their opinions really amount to. C. D. C. Reeve, professor of philosophy at Reed College, gives the standard explanation of an elenchus in saying that its aim “is not simply to reach adequate definitions” of such things as virtues; rather, it also has a “moral reformatory purpose, for Socrates believes that regular elenctic philosophizing makes people happier and more virtuous than anything else. . . . Indeed philosophizing is so important for human welfare, on his view, that he is willing to accept execution rather than give it up.”

Socrates’ method of examination can indeed be a vital part of existence, but I would not go so far as to say that it should be. And I do not think that Socrates felt that habitual use of this method “makes people happier.” The fulfillment that comes from Socratizing comes only at a price – it could well make us unhappier, more uncertain, more troubled, as well as more fulfilled. It can leave us with a sense that we don’t know the answers after all, that we are much further from knowing the answers than we’d ever realized before engaging in Socratic discourse. And this is fulfilling – and exhilarating and humbling and perplexing. We may leave a Socrates Café – in all likelihood we will leave a Socrates Café – with a heady sense that there are many more ways and truths and lights by which to examine any given concept than we had ever before imagined.

In The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche said, “I admire the courage and wisdom of Socrates in all he did, said – and did not say.” Nietzsche was a distinguished nineteenth-century classical philologist before he abandoned the academic fold and became known for championing a type of heroic individual who would create a life – affirming “will to power” ethic. In the spirit of his writings on such individuals, whom he described as “supermen,’, Nietzsche lauded Socrates as a “genius of the heart. . . whose voice knows how to descend into the depths of every soul . . . who teaches one to listen, who smoothes rough souls and lets them taste a new yearning . . . who divines the hidden and forgotten treasure, the drop of goodness . . . from whose touch everyone goes away richer, not having found grace nor amazed, not as blessed and oppressed by the good of another, but richer in himself, opened . . . less sure perhaps… but full of hopes that as yet have no name.” I only differ with Nietzsche when he characterizes Socrates as someone who descended into the depths of others’ souls. To the contrary Socrates enabled those with whom he engaged in dialogues to descend into the depths of their own souls and create their own life – affirming ethic.

Santayana said that he would never hold views in philosophy which he did not believe in daily life, and that he would deem it dishonest and even spineless to advance or entertain views in discourse which were not those under which he habitually lived. But there is no neat divide between one’s views of philosophy and of life. They are overlapping and kindred views. It is virtually impossible in many instances to know what we believe in daily life until we engage others in dialogue. Likewise, to discover our philosophical views, we must engage with ourselves, with the lives we already lead. Our views form, change, evolve, as we participate in this dialogue. It is the only way truly to discover what philosophical colors we sail under. Everyone at some point preaches to himself and others what he does not yet practice; everyone acts in or on the world in ways that are in some way contradictory or inconsistent with the views he or she confesses or professes to hold. For instance, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, the influential founder of existentialism, put Socratic principles to use in writing his dissertation on the concept of irony in Socrates, often using pseudonyms so he could argue his own positions with himself. In addition, the sixteenth-century essayist Michel de Montaigne, who was called “the French Socrates” and was known as the father of skepticism in modern Europe, would write and add conflicting and even contradictory passages in the same work. And like Socrates, he believed the search for truth was worth dying for.

The Socratic method forces people “to confront their own dogmatism,” according to Leonard Nelson, a German philosopher who wrote on such subjects as ethics and theory of knowledge until he was forced by the rise of Nazism to quit. By doing so, participants in Socratic dialogue are, in effect,”forcing themselves to be free,” Nelson maintains. But they’re not just confronted with their own dogmatism. In the course of a Socrates Café, they may be confronted with an array of hypotheses, convictions, conjectures and theories offered by the other participants, and themselves – all of which subscribe to some sort of dogma. The Socratic method requires that – honestly and openly, rationally and imaginatively – they confront the dogma by asking such questions as: What does this mean? What speaks for and against it? Are there alternative ways of considering it that are even more plausible and tenable?

At certain junctures of a Socratic dialogue, the “forcing” that this confrontation entails – the insistence that each participant carefully articulate her singular philosophical perspective – can be upsetting. But that is all to the good. If it never touches any nerves, if it doesn’t upset, if it doesn’t mentally and spiritually challenge and perplex, in a wonderful and exhilarating way, it is not Socratic dialogue. This “forcing” opens us up to the varieties of experiences of others – whether through direct dialogue, or through other means, like drama or books, or through a work of art or a dance. It compels us to explore alternative perspectives, asking what might be said for or against each.

Keep this ethos in mind if you ever, for instance, feel tempted to ask a question like this one once posed at a Socrates Café: How can we overcome alienation? Challenge the premise of the question at the outset. You may need to ask: Is alienation something we always want to overcome? For instance, Shakespeare and Goethe may have written their timeless works because they embraced their sense of alienation rather than attempting to escape it. If this was so, then you might want to ask: Are there many different types, and degrees, of alienation? Depending on the context, are there some types that you want to overcome and other types that you do not at all want to overcome but rather want to incorporate into yourself? And to answer effectively such questions, you first need to ask and answer such questions as: What is alienation? What does it mean to overcome alienation? Why would we ever want to overcome alienation? What are some of the many different types of alienation? What are the criteria or traits that link each of these types? Is it possible to be completely alienated? And many more questions besides.

​Those who become smitten with the Socratic method of philosophical inquiry thrive on the question. They never run out of questions, or out of new ways to question. Some of Socrates Café’s most avid philosophizers are, for me, the question personified.