Altadena Socrates Cafe May Meeting

May 16, 2008

Once again I am late sending this update about the last meeting and for the next meeting. We had three returning and three newcomers (welcome!)--Hope everyone can come again! We had a highly spirited discussion starting from my oft-asked question "What is the meaning of life?", which we honed down to "From where do we find personal purpose for our lives?"

The dialogue wended through various sources for meaning: biological imperitive, cultural context, inherant personality, etc. It was noted there is often a tension between a self-perceived purpose vs. cultural signals (eg, bearing children). Uriah insightfully profered this arises out of a hierarchy of values in conflict with a democratic plurality of values. From the idea of being "successful in life", we pondered how do we know what is right vs wrong, better vs worse. This led us into a historical analysis of the evolution of Christian ideals from the Greeks through contemporary philosophers and ultimately how do we know what we know (ie, Epistemology).

For May, we have been asked to discuss "what is consciousness"? Where and how we take this question will depend on you, fellow Socrates Cafe attendees!

PS. In the rush of discussion, I *forgot* to give away the copy of "Six Questions of Socrates" last time. I will do this (someone remind me!) at the one-hour break next time.

-Bernard

The Altadena Socrates Cafe has been meeting for over three years. Inspired by Christopher Phillips' books, scores of people are meeting for these modern version of Socratic dialogue. These are intended to be group conversations which often move in a spiral, touching on topics in ways that may not be obvious at first. Our purpose is to bring back thoughtful dialogue in counterpoint to the shouting pundits of so-called debate on TV and radio.

ALL ARE WELCOME. ALL WE ASK IS THAT YOU BRING AN INQUISITIVE MIND AND A WILLINGNESS TO LISTEN.