철학자는 굳어버린 규범, 관습, 믿음에 의문을 제기하고 재해석하며 빛바랜 것들을 과감히 도려낸다. 철학자는 군중의 쏠림에 제동을 걸고, 이를 해체해 개인의 문제로 환원시킨다. 개인의 호기심, 세계관은 자유로운 교환을 통해 체계로 투입되고 창의적인 민주주의를 촉진시켜 공감, 새로운 비전, 자아발견이라는 한 차원 높은 '부'를 창출해낸다. 결국 개개인의 '철학'이 모여 공동체의 '정치'를 만들어 낸다.
# # #
ㅁ 질문
Contrary to popular belief, the more questions you have, the firmer the footing you are on. The more you know yourself. The more you can map out and set a meaningful path for your future. p.14
"Well, the short answer to your question is, I started it because I agree with Socrates that 'the unexamined ife is not worth living,'" I say to the woman who asked about Socrates Cafe's genesis. p.38
ㅁ 자유로운 토론과 민주주의
I've often characterized Socrates Cafe as a "church service for heretics," a place where we all feel comfortable challenging our respective dogmas. In his essay "Creative Democracy," John Dewey writes: "I am inclined to believe that the heart and final guarantee of democracy is in free gatherings of neighbors on the streeet corner to discuss back and forth... and converse freely with one another... for everything which bars freedom and fullness of communication sets up bariers that divide human beings into sets and cliques... and thereby undermines the democratic way of life." p.49
I think, "What is a philosopher?" Walter Kaufmann, a modern philosopher who until his death in 1980 at the age of fifty-nine ws a professor at Princeton University, compellingly described a philosopher as someone who fights our fears "to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs" and tries to make us "more sensitive to other points of view, and to show how an outlook that is widely slandered and misunderstood looks and feels from the inside." p.54
ㅁ 끊임없는 호기심
Emerson wrote, "Every thought is also a prison... Therefore we love the poet, the inventor, who in any form, whether in a ode, or in an action, or in looks and behavior, has yielded us a new thought. He unlocks our chains and admits us to a new scene." p.87
I need children to philosophize with. No one questions, no one wonders, no one examines, like children. It is not simply that children love questions but that they live questions. p.104
"You might say they 'age.' But I don't think that has to be the same thing as saying they 'grow old.' Certainly, if you quit having a passion for learning and living, your mind can 'grow old' from disuse - but that can happen at a very young age. But if your mind is constantly nurtured, it can 'grow young' as you age." p.126
ㅁ 참여, 시민, 그리고 새로운 가치들
Still, my ultimate goal was to extend philosphical outreach for beyond schools and universities and cafes. I believed that if we were ever going to make our society more participatory, more democratic, then everyone had to feel he or she had a stake in the process. Everyone had to know in no uncertain terms that what he or she say and think and do matters and counts. Only then would people from all walks of life be inspired to articulate their worldview and expand their horizons by engaging in the complementary pursuits of knowledge and human excellence. p.134
I think a thorough reading of Kaufmann's oeavre shows he believed that civilization might not have a future if it didn't resuscitate its Socratic heritage. Kaufmann helped instill in me the conviction that if humankind was going th stand its ground the next time a madman tried to mislead people with mesmerizing propaganda and dupe them into committing inhumane and irrational acts, then it somehow had to become second nature for the "masses" to seek Socrates. p.161
To Socrates, an excellent human being is one who strives to acquire certain virtues, such as temperance, courage, and wisdom. Why? Because the acquisition of such virtues creates a different kind of wealth - a wealth of empathy, of imaginative vision, of self-discovery. p.210
- <Socrates Cafe>, Christopher Phillips, 2001, Norton
