Socrates Cafe

[1] Socrates Cafés began in 1996, when Christopher Phillips, then a freelance writer and editorial consultant, desired to in some way build on the legacy of historical thinkers.

Plato uses the figure of Socrates as a way of introducing the idea of intellectual discussion in order to promote the pursuit of truth, not as a path for personal discovery.

...To treat opportunities for dialogue as a means of self-discovery is a modern attitude, not the aim of Socrates own original dialectic.

In very much an extra-academic (but not anti-academic) spirit, Phillips has inspired individuals to create in their own communities voluntary groups who convene to discuss philosophical questions they themselves have chosen."

(p. 146) Blacker considers the Socrates cafe endeavor to be a critical effort for evolving a democracy, the essential function and mission of which to him is for its citizens "to think for themselves about the lives they want to lead" (p. 146).