【Chu Hui-Min∕Taipei】

You are all very welcome to join us this Saturday, 31 August, in the Philosopher Cafe at the Life & Living School of DDU.

You’ll find this perfect getaway, located on the 10th Floor of the Degui, filled with the aroma of coffee on a hot summer weekend! Dr. Gu will conduct a discussion group with 40 members on the subject of “refuse to accept, accepting refusal”. The group will share life experience and explore the issues philosophically. 

Breaking the ice for the group with a relaxed atmosphere, Prof. Gu, with a PhD. Degree in Philosophy, will then briefly introduce the tradition of the Philosopher Cafe as it has existed abroad for several decennia.

The underlying idea of the Philosopher Cafe is to achieve a profound dialogue through listening, reflection, expression, and communication, Prof. Gu says.

She also guides participants to pay attention to discussion techniques.  Her way of conducting the group discussions is based on respect for all the different opinions, listening carefully to the each other’s viewpoints, not interrupting speakers, freely sharing one’s own views and receiving all ideas as one’s own nutrients.

The participants are from a wide variety of backgrounds. There are students, retired managers, social workers, performers, teachers, and housewives. These diverse perspectives will reveal the many faces of the core issue “Refuse to accept, Accepting refusal”.

Experience has taught us that participants appreciate the variety of perspectives about our world and were able to re-examine some of the “truth.” Some suggested to keep the group smaller to ensure more interaction and to make sure that the soul and depth of life’s philosophy can be explored.

The Philosopher Cafe took shape in Paris, France starting from the Enlightenment, through the French Revolution, and the Modernist Movement of the 1850s until now. All through these decades, the development of the Cafe philosophique ("cafe-philo") as it is called in French, has been closely connected to the left bank of the Seine.