Publisher's Weekly Review
In an entertaining blend of memoir and philosophical reflection, a former journalist describes his adventures bringing philosophy to the masses through his Socrates Caf. Phillips travels the country starting philosophical discussion groups in cafs, schools, churches, community centers, prisons, hospices, nursing homes and senior centers. In each session, a question from a participant becomes the focus for free-flowing, sometimes contentious, communal inquiry. Questions spotlighted in this book include "What is insanity?" "How do you know when you know yourself?" "What is a world?" "Does anyone have the right to be ignorant?" and "Why question?" A rough version of the Socratic method is employed, characterized as "the sustained attempt to explore the ramifications of... opinions and... offer compelling objections and alternatives." Phillips presents several real discussions in poetically "filtered" form, interspersed with his own lucid commentary and citations. These dialogues are lively and sometimes moving, particularly his account of how he met his wife. But the quality of participants' opinions is often low, on the sophomoric level of such comments as "Communication is meaningless," and despite Phillips's efforts to probe, these dialogues yield few fresh insights. Phillips's own philosophical weakness is in romanticizing questioning as nearly an end in itself, claiming to run a "church service for heretics," even though his belief that "all so-called truths... are never the last word" is itself a popular dogma. Nevertheless, as in the case of the usually silent fifth-grader who wonders out loud about the word "wonder" ("I wonder what other kids think of me.... I wonder what they see, I wonder if they see a good person..."), he winningly showcases a tantalizing method for getting philosophy to thrive more widely. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A rather juvenile jeremiad against the shallowness of contemporary life. Journalist Phillips wants us to think and question more. He wants modern society to be one giant Athenian agora, with people puzzling over the big questions, waving their hands as they debate the meaning of life, furrowing their brows as they ponder the nature of freedom and rationality. He wants us to hold Socrates Cafés. They dont have to happen in cafés, though perhaps the aroma of French Roast will stimulate discussion. They happen anywhere people want to do philosophy, anywhere people want to do more than regurgitate the books theyve read. Phillips tells of leading a Socrates Café at Mad Magdas Russian Tea Room in San Francisco, where more than 50 people gathered to discuss Why question? You can even have a Socrates Café of onea tête-à-tête with only one tête, as Phillips delightfully puts itany time you ask yourself a question or think a deep thought. Folks at the College II Coffeehouse ponder over what a friend is. (One man claims he has no expectations of any of his friends, and his interlocutor is stunned, asking if that is really possible.) In New Jersey, a gang chats about how you know when you know yourself. The amateur Socrates here are often a touch self-indulgent: take, for example, the erstwhile philosophy Ph.D. candidates who realized he couldnt find true philosophy in the groves of academe (because ivory-tower pointy heads imagine themselves to be philosophers, but they arent real philosophers) or the cardboard lawyer in West Virginia (hes a great success, but he hates the law and feels trapped). Weve heard this kvetching before, and theres nothing especially philosophical about it. Some readers will put this down halfway through, driven mad by the sophomoric tonebut anyone who misses those dorm-room chats may be inspired to start a Socrates Café of his own.
Booklist Review
The author "facilitates" Socratic Q-and-A sessions around the country, an itinerancy that takes him to, yes, coffee shops and bookstores but also to prisons, nursing homes, and inner-city elementary schools. This book reconstructs the give-and-take of discussions he initiates with the free-form question, "Does anyone have a question?" Some posed are standards in philosophy (e.g., "What is wisdom?"); others are ostensibly of prosaic self-concern, as in one attendee's query about how to escape her dead-end job. Like his martyred hero, Phillips induces his listeners to examine their assumptions rationally, in hopes they will see the way to improving the meaningfulness of their lives. These dialogues are intriguing, interesting, and often unexpected, as Phillips modestly considers himself a fellow inquirer, rather than a didactic instructor. He describes how he came to this role from a feeling that his journalism vocation was barren of purpose and that philosophy, perceived as the province of academics, direly needed some outreach to resuscitate it with ordinary people. A noble, accessible tome to enliven the philosophy shelf. Gilbert Taylor
Choice Review
As the title implies, Socrates Cafe is intended to arouse a broad nonacademic audience to engage in philosophical dialogue. Phillips, founder of the Society for Philosophical Inquiry , describes his "zany quest" not as an effort to teach but "to bring philosophy out of the university and back to the people" through meetings in diners, churches, hospices, prisons, schools, and bookstores. It challenges participants to think and question assumptions, wherever found, from the pulpit to the political campaign, from the classroom to the boardroom. The first step is to recognize one's own ignorance and then to see the need to articulate precise distinctions that aid in refuting faulty arguments and evoking informed life choices. Phillip's effort could be an admirable one, but he must override the immanent danger of obscuring the difference between ordinary conversation and carefully honed philosophical dialogue aimed at a rigorous examination of everyday categories. After all, Socrates' deepest insight was to prize the guide who could challenge superficial discourse and thus, as Karl Jaspers says (in The Great Philosophers, vol. 1, 1966, 1995), "arouse, disturb and compel the innermost soul to self-mastery." This book could be an appropriate tool for the general reader if it is used to raise the issue of what is philosophy. J. M. Boyle Dowling College
Library Journal Review
Former journalist Phillips travels around the country to elicit dialogs, questions, and philosophical investigations from nonacademic participants. Elementary schools, senior-citizen facilities, public coffeehouses, and other well-populated venues provide the backdrops for the discussions he reports in this account of what "doing philosophy" can and does mean in contemporary culture. "To this day," he claims, "Socrates' example continues to teach us how to expand our own intellectual and imaginative horizons." In an accessible format and breezy tone, Phillips shows how his public Socratic forums help many in attendance work through the kind of life issues that would send others for professional help. Among his own boosters are distinguished scholar and professor of philosophy Matthew Lipman and Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Coles. Both this book as well as the web site (www.philosopher.org) that it complements provide inspirational guidance for those who want to investigate wisdom beyond the halls of academia or at least read about the efforts others are making in this regard. For all collections.DFrancisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.