WELCOME TO SocratesU(™)
A number of you have written to us expressing a keen interest in learning still more about the Socrates Cafe and Democracy Cafe way of exploration, inquiry and human encounter.
Many say you’d like to delve deeper with us into what this transformative method, and the history, scholarship and the nuts and bolts behind it, is all about.
You hope it’ll be of help to you in both personal and professional pursuits (including becoming a better facilitator, and participant, at our nonprofit gatherings). Some have the fond hope it’ll help make you more engaged citizens, even ‘better’ (more understanding and open) human beings.
Most important of all, many expressed the hope, even the expectation, that learning more deeply and expansively from us might open up new pathways and portals of communication, of understanding, and connection. This in turn can help you bridge the divides that exist between you and others, and between you and yourself, in ways that enable one and all better to flourish.
Welcome to SocratesU.
Through our series of e-courses — the overarching theme is, All the Right Questions — you’ll learn considerably more about:
— the ‘Socrates Cafe Method,’ and how and why it differs from other versions of the Socratic Method
— the objectives of these rich inquiries
— the nuts and bolts of what they’re all about, including the historical and scholarly underpinnings
— how to facilitate these gatherings (or how better to facilitate them), and even how to be a better participant.
— how better to communicate, listen, and grow as a human being at every age and stage of life.
Socrates Cafe founder Christopher Phillips, PhD, who has held thousands of Socratic inquiries and explorations the world over, and written popular and scholarly books, articles and essays (as well as his doctoral dissertation) about his experiences, is spearheading this, in collaboration with Cecilia Phillips and others (including our beloved board chair Dennis Dienst) who have long worked directly with them, are launching SocratesU and this initial set of e-courses.
Socrates U Courses 1.0 – All the Right Questions
On Monday August 26, 2019 at 7 pm Central, we’ll offer our first e-course, via Zoom.com It’ll last between an hour and ninety minutes.
Course #1 — Introduction to Socrates Cafe – August 26, 2019, 7 pm Central Time
This inaugural course might also be entitled, ‘Socrates Cafe — What’s it all about?’ You’ll emerge from this course with a much clearer and more thorough understanding of — what our ‘Socrates Cafe method’ of inquiry is all about, what objectives we ideally have in mind, what its basic elements amount to, and how and why it is that our version of this method has proven to be so effective in diverse cultures and communities the world over.
Course #2: How to facilitate a Socrates Cafe inquiry (and how to participate), and frame meaningful questions Monday Sept 2, 2019, 7 pm Central Time
In this second course, and those to follow, we will build on our first offering — though each is self-contained, it also is all connected, all about theme and variation, building all what came before — and delve into things like how to artfully frame questions that have you and most others leaning in, how to explore, facilitate (and participate ) ‘the Socrates Cafe way’ — not just at a Socrates Cafe by any means, but in sundry settings (including the classroom, and organizations) for a variety of purposes (including as part of mindfulness). You’ll gain insights from Christopher and others — this’ll be more of an ensemble presentation than the first — about what a philosophical question amounts to or can amount to (or how to discover philosophical grist in other sorts of questions), how to facilitate adeptly when there are difficult participants on hand, how to practice deftly the art and science of listening.
Course #3 The Scholarly (and other) Influences Behind Socrates Cafe. Monday September 9, 2019, Central Time. You’ll learn the principal scholarly influences, above and beyond Socrates himself, behind Socrates Cafe and its undergirding method of inquiry and exploration. You’ll learn which version or versions of Socrates we most subscribe to and build on, as well as those Socrates scholars, doers, thinkers, makers who have carried the torch — as well as the influence of Christopher’s own Greek heritage.
Course #4: Socratizing with children and youth. September 23, 2019 7 pm Central Time
Christopher and Cecilia Phillips, who have been holding inquiries with children and youth the world over for 23 years, prospectively along with others, will share their insights about inquiring with our youngest, what elements to keep in mind while facilitating dialogues with children and youth, and why (and how) it can be singularly transformative for one and all. You will also learn a bit about those philosophers, from Paolo Freire to Mathew Lipman, who made it much of their life’s work to philosophize with children, and how their work influenced our own.
Course #5: Socratizing with special populations. September 30, 2019, 7 pm Central Time
In this course, you will learn more about facilitating Socratic inquiry with populations including shelters for the homeless, for victims of abuse, for prison populations, for end of life patients, for children with terminal illness, and for the mentally ill.
Course #6: Let’s Get Political (or at least, Democratic and Constitutional). Monday October 7, 2019, 7 pm Central Time: How (and why) to facilitate and participate in Democracy Cafe and Constitution Cafe inquiries, and how these differ from Socrates Cafe. It behooves people in the most open, and closed, societies to critically examine issues that impact their lives, and that possibly lead to the forging of ‘uncommon common ground’ and the implementation of concrete steps by diverse people to make their societies more responsive.C
Course #7: Socratic Citizenship and the Global Socrates Cafe/Democracy Cafe Movement. Monday October 21, 2019, 7 pm Central Time. Socrates Cafe has genuinely become a global phenomenon, with thriving groups in places like Saudi Arabia, India, Poland, Germany, Fiji. Why is this so? What can we all learn from these far-flung groups? What connects each of them? What philosophers in specific cultures are kindred spirits of Socrates in many respects?
Please note that completion of these courses do not authorize you to be a facilitator trainer, since this is not a train-the-trainer program.
What is the cost?
We’re charging for now the low introductory price of $99 for all seven courses as we Beta test this first-ever series, which we hope and expect to be able record (the recordings of course are proprietary and cannot be shared without our expressed permission). We also plan to offer a couple or few full and partial scholarships for those who otherwise would not be able to participate.
Upon taking these seven courses, you have the option of receiving an online Certificate of Completion. We will also plan to award one CEU for completion of the seven-course series (while we have not sought accreditation from the International Association for Continuing Education and Training — and our understanding is that it is not required — typically one Certified Education Unit is given per ten contact hours).
We stress that you do not ever have to do this in order to start or facilitate a Socrates Cafe. However, many of you over the years have requested that you would like to learn more from us directly (rather than simply refer to our online guide) — and that you aspire to become an even better facilitator, participant, communicator, listener, thinker — further steeped in what this is all about, this is what you will have to do, then this might be of benefit.
We’re already in the process of hatching further courses for those who want to know ever more and dig deeper with us into themes revolving around Socratic forms of inquiry and exploration — and we also plan periodically to hold live Socrates Cafes online, for a nominal sum.
If the days and times of the live courses aren’t convenient, we’ll record them and you can access them whenever you like. (Also, we plan to offer more live courses down the road). IMPORTANT NOTE: If you do choose to receive videos of the courses, please note that they are of course proprietary — owned by Christopher Phillips — and so they are for viewing for your eyes only and not to be shared with anyone else.
If you would like to enroll in our first live course on Monday, August 26, 2019 at 7 pm Central, here is the Paypal site at which to do so. We then will send you an invitation with the access link (please be sure to let us know your email address).
We would like to limit each class to about 25 participants.
Down the road, we’ll also plan to hold periodically live Socrates Cafes on the Zoom platform (presumably we’ll stay with Zoom, unless we find there are too many hitches and glitches).
And, later in the fall or early winter, we will hold, as a separate course, half-day workshops (in English and in Spanish) around our workbook A Journey of Socratic Self Discovery: Changing Your Life, One Question at a Time
We hope you’ll join us, and we thank you so much for your continued and enthused interest in our work and our mission. We look forward to our live exchanges with you in these courses.
Questions? Email Chris at Christopher_Phillips@mac.com
A world of thanks to Richard Bernstein, MD, Christopher CL McGown, Dennis K. Dienst, Odin Halvorson, Danielle Olson, and Paul Martin for their generous support and also their inspirational encouragement for this latest project and our many other endeavors — and to Danielle Olson for the untold hours she put into developing and designing all of our websites.