At Socrates Café, people all over the world gather to explore philosophy using non-academic, public conversation. You’ll be amazed at what you learn from other people!

Little Rock’s Socrates Café is an event sponsored by the  Central Arkansas Library System. The Arkansas Society of Freethinkers promotes it, because it exemplifies a core value of freethinking: the exploration of ideas about life and the way we live it.

In his book Socrates Café: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy, Christopher Phillips proposed that ordinary people could hold passionate dialogues about matters that affect us. Philosophy is not some museum piece to be treated like a dusty, dry, outdated, abstract notion. It is the basis for our decisions and our world views, and when we examine why we hold the opinions we do, and explore questions that seem unanswerable, we change minds – other people’s as well as our own.

Examples of some recent interesting questions include:

• What would be important to us if we were immortal?
• How are gender roles created?
• What are the dangers of unjustified beliefs?
• Why is atheism feared and hated?
• What would you change in history if you knew no harm would come to you?
• What are our ethical responsibilities to species we eat?
• Who will guard the guards?
• Is war inevitable?
• How can we improve our political system?
• Do we have free will?

Socrates Café meets in Little Rock three times a month, from 6-8 p.m.:

• 1st Thursday at Maumelle Library
• 3rd Monday at Terry Library
• 4th Wednesday at Fletcher Library