Hi folks:

We have a bunch of new members this week - Weclome! This makes it a good time to mention some background and ground rules.

Background:

The Socrates cafe idea comes from a book called, surprise, Socrates Cafe, by Chris Phillips (Amazon listing: http://tinyurl.com/2d... ). The idea is to make philosophy into a friendly conversation and give people tools for safely discussing big questions with curious, friendly people. It's a good book and I recommend it.

About the meetups - all that's required to attend is 3 things:

1) A friendly, curious disposition
2) The ability to listen as well as talk
3) An open mind and a sense of humor

How the meetups are run:

1. We crack jokes while reviewing the rules above
2. Make a list of questions each person wants to talk about
3. We pick one
4. We start talking
5. When the topic dies, or becomes an us vs. them argument, we pick another. It's that simple.

Things not to do

1. The main goal is not to convince others of your opinion. Voicing opinions is great, but if you're 100% sure you're right, you should join a debate club, not this group.
2. Continually fight for the floor. If you're not listening as much as talking, you're probably not learning anything.
3. Be afraid to ask questions. Our best meetups involve us working together to find better, more insightful, questions, or to find more interesting ways to frame our thoughts.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions - Cheers,

-Scott