Bestselling Author │ Founder, Socrates Café │ Journalist

“Socrates stayed at home, but his modern disciple, Phillips, prefers globetrotting. And, as he travels the world, Phillips challenges ordinary people with the central questions of Socrates' philosophy...Phillips invites readers to sit in on his far-flung dialogues, debating the nature of virtue with librarians and junior-high students in Athens, pondering the meaning of moderation among neo-Confucianists near Seoul, and contemplating the character of courage with retired firefighters and corporate executives in New Jersey.”

--Booklist

For Christopher Phillips, philosophy is a living thing—an essential way of approaching the world and puzzling out one’s place in it.  Philosophy is his passion, and he has found his life’s vocation in bringing the Socratic Method to ordinary people in ordinary places, challenging them to consider, What is virtue? Good? Justice? Moderation? Piety? Courage?

He believes that “Socrates’ example continues to teach us how to expand our own intellectual and imaginative horizons.”  Phillips’s goal is inspire people who are curious, perplexed, and filled with an insatiable sense of wonder, so that they can work toward discovery and democracy.

In his bestseller Socrates Café (W.W. Norton, 2001), Phillips describes his extensive travels starting philosophical discussion groups across America and recalls what led him to start this itinerant program to begin with.  Recounting some of the most invigorating sessions, he reveals sometimes surprising, often profound reflections on the meaning of love, friendship, work, growing old, and others among Life’s Big Questions.

In his successful follow up, Six Questions of Socrates (W.W. Norton, 2004), Phillips continues this work, venturing to foreign lands and engaging in spirited and provocative discussions with people from many backgrounds: Japanese fifth-graders, Somali refugees, a Mexican museum worker, an Israeli university student, Korean Buddhists…The responses uncover surprising commonalities between cultures and reveal the deep connections between classical philosophy, modern life, and the rich traditions and experiences of people far removed from the canon of Western academic philosophy.

“…Phillips induces his listeners to examine their assumptions rationally, in hopes they will see the way to improving the meaningfulness of their lives. These dialogues are intriguing, interesting, and often unexpected, as Phillips modestly considers himself a fellow inquirer, rather than a didactic instructor.”

--Booklist

Phillips reminds us that we ought to ask questions—that the process of dialogue and the space of human interaction are good for us as individuals and are essential for us as a society.  At a time when American culture is perceived as isolationist and self-involved, Phillips’s inquiries provide us with a key to understanding ourselves and the people around us with greater openness and less fear.

Dr. Phillips earned his PhD in Communications, and has been a teacher and a journalist. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Society for Philosophical Inquiry (SPI). Matthew Lipman, a distinguished scholar and professor of philosophy, and Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Coles serve on the advisory board of SPI.

Phillips's scholarly interests include theory and methodology of deliberative practice; synthesis of culturally- and historically-specific traditions into an essentialized model for advancing deliberative democracy; performance and communications; communication strategies in Revolutionary America; and Socratic inquiry, including topical applications in areas such as media studies and intercultural communications.

Phillips and his wife Cecilia divide their time between Mexico and Virginia. They are also the ecstatic parents of Caliope Alexis Phillips. Currently Phillips is writing two new books on a “dialogue for democracy."

Books

• Democracy Café (forthcoming from W.W. Norton, 2011)
  
• Socrates in Love: Philosophy for a Passionate Heart (W. W. Norton, 2007) 
• Six Questions of Socrates (W. W. Norton, 2004)
• Socrates Café: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy (W. W. Norton, 2001)
  

Children's Books

• Ceci Ann's Day of Why (Tricycle Press, September 2006)  
• The Philosophers' Club, illustrated by Kim Doner (Tricycle Press, 2001)

Selected Lecture Topics

• A Modern-Day Journey of Discovery Through World Philosophy
• Bowling Together: Building Social Capital and Civic-Mindedness
• Looking Within: A Socratic Symposium on Soul
• Socrates Café: Philosophical Communities In and Out of the Academy
• The Six Socratic Virtues: A Pathway to Human Excellence
• The Artful Life
• The Road to Reason

To listen to an interview with Christopher Phillips on NPR, click here.

For more information about Christopher Phillips, please go to www.christopherphillips.com or  www.philosopher.org.