CAFÉ PHILO

A café philo is an organised debate in a public place by excellence. It aims at establishing a philosophical exchange democratically distributing the right to speak amongst the participants. It strives to induce "philosophic moments", to pass from simple opinion to thought, to analyse communally concepts, to decode the various meanings, in the form of a collective search on a particular subject.

Originally starting in Paris, café philos (otherwise known as Philosophy cafés) have sprung up throughout the world for the past couple of years. The basic principle is to make philosophy accessible to all, trying to revive the Socratic period in Athens, whereby philosophers would dialogue publicly in the "polis". The café as a public forum has come to be that friendly place where people can gather together and discuss ideas collectively over a cup of coffee. You could consider it as a 'community salon'.

Gale Prawda

Our Café philo will be led by Gale Prawda who culminated her philosophical studies at the Sorbonne, under the direction of the eminent Paul Ricoeur, in a Doctorate with Honors in 1980. Today, with the advent of the Café Philo movement started in 1992 by Marc Sautet, 50 years after Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus known originally as café philosophers 'malgrè eux', Gale Prawda became aware of it and got involved in 1996. With the enthusiastic support of M. Sautet, Gale successfully launched the first English Café des Philosophes in April '97 at the now infamous 40's Philo hangout, Le Café de Flore in the intellectual and literary quarter of St. Germain des Prés.

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