elizabeth eidlitz

Following in Socrates' footsteps

Unless you want to start World War III at the dinner table, heed the old adage, "Don't discuss sex, religion or politics."

Topics that push our Archie Bunker buttons provoke verbal salvos: "You're nuts!" or "You idiot!" during confrontations hot enough to melt ice cream.

Unlike reasoned discussions, such emotionally based arguments generate a lot of heat, but no light.

It's been 2,500 years since Socrates roamed the Athenian marketplace and held dialogues that fostered critical thinking.

It's been only nine years since author and traveler Christopher Phillips, supporting Socrates' claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living," launched more than 150 Socrates Cafes in coffee shops, bookstores, libraries, casinos, hospices and prisons, where discussion adhered to the Greek philosopher's method of questioning.

The minister of Hopedale Unitarian Parish, the Rev. Richard F. Drinon, has been interested in the Socratic method since his undergraduate days as a philosophy major. Last fall, opening the parish hall to anyone interested, he established a weekly Wednesday morning Socrates Cafe (http://hopedaleuu.serverl 01.com/gpageSocrates.html) as an opportunity to place current issues and political events into a broader context.

It attracted Milford resident John Deven-dorf, a therapist, who has directed a program for adolescents who've committed violent crimes, Ernst Schoop, a retired social worker, plus a physical therapist and a music director.

The daytime forum includes two retired teachers. Janet Grant of Hopedale says, "I wanted to take part in a social group that would stretch my mind and expose me to diverse opinions and different views on a given " Pauline Marquis of Upton. who values the "enthusiastic non-judgmental exchange of ideas among laymen on a weekly basis," says, "Life experiences, personal questions and concerns are spoken easily at the table. Humor and coffee smooth the way."

Richard Johnson of Franklin, a research psychologist who has studied people's ability to think clearly and react appropriately under stress, sees the Socrates Cafe as more than an opportunity to discuss politics and religion in a non-confrontational setting.

"It's a way of tackling the same issues but rephrasing the questions," he said.

"Instead of discussing whether we should have invaded Iraq, we ask 'What is a just war?'"

Questions which group members propose in writing spark open dialogue about some of the hard issues facing the human race: Is there a difference between ethics and morals? What makes us human? Has morality been hijacked by religion? What is the good life? What are we here for? What is happiness?

One to two hours are spent probing such questions for built-in assumptions, embedded concepts, logical consistencies and inconsistencies, and alternative viewpoints. For example, when a participant asks, "How can we overcome alienation?" it's necessary to define alienation, to ask if alienation is something we always want to overcome, to discuss what it means to overcome alienation, and whether it's possible to be completely alienated.

If you suspect that prerequisites for admission to this group include a Ph.D., a Phi Beta Kappa key and reading of a multipaged bibliography, check your assumptions in true Socratic fashion. A Socrates Cafe is a welcoming, inclusive place for civilized, reflective thinking.

In his latest book, "Six Questions of Socrates," the man behind the Socrates cafe movement, views it as a gathering place where participants can constantly test out their ideas, compare them with others and create and experiment with new ones. As Phillips writes, "This seemed a critical moment to hold dialogues around the globe on foundational questions... The answers we discovered together might help all of us better understand how we got ourselves into this predicament, how we might learn from mistakes and successes of the past and present and how we might get out of it."

A Socrates Cafe, which can be started anywhere by anyone, is considered a success when participants leave a discussion with many more questions than they had at the beginning.

"The whole idea is not that we have to find the final answer; it's that we keep thinking," Phillips said.

From: Milford (Mass.) Daily News. June 12, 2005.