Activities

Recent Meetings, Conferences, Colloquiums – 2020 to 2025

Besides Socratic Dialogues, the Society also organises Colloquia and International Conferences in cooperation with its international affiliates. Here you can find more information about these activities

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Activities 2000-20

Philo Cafes – Cowes Library, Isle of Wight There will be a warm welcome for you and lively discussion on these dates and topics at Cowes Library. Café Philo, or Philo Café, allows you to explore issues in a safe, friendly setting with other people, giving an opportunity to speak of those ideas you consider important and interesting and to listen and contribute to the ideas of others. It has been said that discussion in a Philo Café is ‘doing thinking’.

2020-1 Zoom Socratic with Anna Bromley
During the pandemic when face-to-face Socratic dialogues were not possible, Anna gave online dialogues a go with a small group of people she had met over the years including friends, colleagues and fellow Socratic dialogue facilitators and participants. We followed a similar format to a traditional dialogue, starting with a question, an example, and then deciding upon a core statement to understand the rules and principles behind our emerging answer. There were tweaks to the format, of course. We didn’t have the luxury of time, so the example was often pre-prepared and the dialogue wouldn’t go so deep over the 2 or 3-hour period online, which is to be expected. The questions centered on a range of philosophical and humanistic ideas like freedom, tolerance, doubt, and success. Each dialogue had between 5 and 12 people joining with the sweet spot of attendees being around 6. Any more than that and it became difficult for everyone to have their say during the short period. Over all 10 online dialogues were facilitated. “I really enjoyed them and it was a positive experience for me and many others. It’s also worth noting that the type of people attending was more diverse as the dialogues were online and at the weekend, which contributed to broader discussions as time and location are often limiting factors for who comes to face-to-face dialogues. “

2019 International Conference Limits – Borders – Boundaries: Philosophical, Political and Cultural aspects The 8th International Conference of PPA, SFCP and GSP was held in Springe near Hannover in Lower Saxony in August 2019.

2019 Tamsyn Imison Award This competition was aimed at both secondary school and university level students across Europe. Dame Tamsyn Imison was a prominent British educator and “educational strategist” who chaired SFCP for a number of years. The award-winning essays are here.

2017 Socratic Dialogues with the Royal College of Physicians
After the Senior Policy and Training adviser from the Joint Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Training Board, Dr Miriam Armstrong attended a Socratic Dialogue Workshop in 2017, she initiated training workshops with SFCP. Mike Cook and Julie-Marie ffrench Devitt met with the Board Members from across the UK and started a series of dialogues from 2017-2022.

2018 Sixth International Colloquium on Dialogical Practice and Dialogical Philosophizing (Cambridge)
The theme was “Limits – Borders – Boundaries: Philosophical, political and social aspects”.

2017 International Colloquium on Dialogical Practice and Dialogical Philosophizing (Berlin)
The theme of the Colloquium was “The Logic of Question and Answer” The workshops were especially challenging since they required the facilitators to plan on the spot. The Socratic Dialogues prompted active participation and lead to fruitful insights and reflections.

2016 International Colloquia on Dialogical Practice and Dialogical Philosophizing (Sofia) Bulgaria 2015 and Rovereto, Italy 2016
In Sofia, statements were given by speakers and discussed in group sessions, and short dialogues were conducted and thoroughly reflected upon. In Italy the format was a bit different – no individual statements were given, except an introductory speech by Dr. Paolo Dordoni upon the main topic – interpretation. This was followed by a number of different activities, including discussion, working with texts, Socratic Dialogues, and a group session on the main topic. Remarkably, this allowed the multitude of theoretical angles to converge, bringing about a cohesion between the participants.

2012 Grete Hermann Workshop (Aberdeen)
Grete Henry-Hermann (1901-1984) was a brilliant critical philosopher and philosopher of science, who collaborated in Nelson’s scholarly work, was active in resistance activity in Nazi Germany, and later as a refugee in Britain. She took part actively in post war German democratic politics, teacher training, and chairing Nelson’s Academy. Though less well known as a mathematician, she shared developing ideas with the pioneers of quantum physics.

2009 Living together in our modern world – reason and role of dialogue (Chichester)
The theme was “Living Together in our Modern World”.