Café philosophique

[2] The subjects discussed at the cafés had a range that varied from the Santa Claus myth to truth to beauty to sex to death.

The concept that started in France and subsequently entered England, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Finland and eventually throughout Europe is now in Canada, South America, Greece, Australia, Japan and the United States.

[3] Due to this success, the French president Jacques Chirac sent a founding member on a good will mission to Latin America to introduce the concept there.

The public evenings are usually led by members and associates of the ever-changing group rather than by professional philosophers, but prospective speakers are welcome to propose topics; the text of some of the talks can be read online.

Philosophers, poets, writers, and intellectuals of all types made these places their new meeting places.The first Oxford coffee house opened in 1650 and in London in 1652 In 1686 the Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli started Café Procope in rue de l'Ancienne Comédie, in the Latin Quarter of Paris known as the 6th arrondissement.

Certain intellectuals that have frequented the café for philosophical discussions throughout history have been Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, Honoré de Balzac, Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, François-Marie Arouet, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Georges Danton, Jean-Paul Marat, and Denis Diderot amongst others.

Soon university students showed up, followed by eccentric citizens off the street, off-duty cab drivers, and idle wealthy women.