Contact The Socrates Project

1. Conducting Socratic Conversations with students and faculty on the campus of Columbia University (release appears below).

2. Conducting the Socrates Salon at the public library in Great Neck, New York -- the longest-running conversation group in the U.S.

3. Regular column in the Newsletter of the Conversation Cafes (www.conversationcafe.org).

4. Speaking on The Joy and Power of Conversation (see home page for Mar. 13 event).

5. Consulting and Training on using Conversation strategies to improve performance in organizations, especially for Strategic Planning, Creativity, Decision-Making, and Collaborative Action (www.RonaldGross.com).

For dates and topics of upcoming Conversations, please go to the home page of this website (www.SocratesWay.com), where announcements appear in the right hand column.

Joy and Power of Great Talk to be celebrated at New York events during global Conversation Week March 24-30, 2008

We are providing New Yorkers with opportunities to participate in Conversation Week, in venues ranging from the atrium of the IBM building on Madison Avenue, to the back room of an Afghan Restaurant on 26th St., to the Gottesman Library at Columbia University.

To preview Conversation Week, Ron Gross will give a presentation on March 13th at the Albert Ellis Institute, and Socrates will appear on March 20th, the first day of Spring, in front of the Donnel Library, across the street from the Museum of Modern Art.

Among the free events already scheduled* are:

** "Stop Boring Yourself to Death: Getting from Small Talk to Exhilarating Conversation - Anywhere, Anytime, with Anyone." Lecture by Ron Gross on Thursday, Mar. 13 (pre-CW Week presentation), 6:30 p.m., Albert Ellis Institute, 45 East 65th St. (Contact: Ron Gross at grossassoc@aol.com)

** Socrates, the 5th century philosopher famed for engaging his fellow Athenians in vibrant street-corner conversations, will reappear at noon on Thursday, March 20th, the first day of Spring, infront of the Donnell Library at 20 W. 53rd Street (across the street from the Museum of Modern Art), to discuss the joy and power of conversation, and provide information about Conversation Week. (Socrates is portrayed by Ron Gross, author of Socrates’ Way (www.SocratesWay.com). (Contact Ron at grossassoc@aol.com).

** Socrates Café, Tues., Mar. 25, 6:45 p.m., Atrium at 590 Madison Ave., between 56th and 57th streets (former IBM Building). Special CW meeting of this regular weekly gathering. (Contact: Evan Sinclair at ems327@yahoo.com)

** Cafe Philo, Thurs., Mar. 27, 6:30 p.m., Bamiyan Restaurant, 358 3rd Ave. (26th St.). Special CW meeting of this twice-monthly conversation on the Parisian (Contact: Bernard Roy at bernardroy@earthlink.net)

* Please confirm closer to date.

More events are being planned and will be announced shortly.

Want to be involved? -- by attending a group, or starting your own? Find everything you need to know at www.conversationcafe.org

A Socratic Conversation is a discussion among equals, of an important topic on which everyone has much to contribute drawing from life-experience, reflection, and reading. It is modeled on what Socrates and his friends did in the streets of 5th century Athens, which launched the Western tradition of independent thinking and civic discourse.

Participants sit in a circle to maximize inter-action, with tent-cards at their feet to facilitate direct communication. Refreshments, appropriate decor, and mood-setting music help create a convivial atmosphere. An evocative hand-out may be used to set the agenda. The facilitator welcomes the group, sets the tone, and guides the discussion – but does not lecture. The Conversation is propelled by provocative questions about the topic, issue, or subject, used flexibly and resourcefully as needed to advance the dialogue.

The success of a Socratic Conversation depends on the willingness of participants to Speak, Listen, Connect, and Stretch.

For Socrates and his friends, exhilarating conversations were one of the chief ways to live well. We can enjoy and benefit from such grand talk today. The ways in which Americans by the thousands are doing that have been described in recent articles in TIME and READER'S DIGEST.

We pioneered in creating such "Socratic Conversations," starting in 1983, and currently conduct the longest-running one in the U.S. Most recently we launched one in Rome, Italy. Currenty, we hold an on-going series for students on the campus of Columbia University in New York City, on the second Tuesday of each month -- please contact us if you'd like an invitation.

There are now so many such initiatives that they have their own global network which lists them, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, at http://www.thataway.org/. They include the Conversation Cafes based in Seattle, World Cafe, the Cafe Philo movement, Let's Talk America, Socrates Cafes, the Public Conversations Project, etc.

To join this kind of conversation, you have to be willing to rise above the level of 99% of everyday conversations. "We descend to meet," Thoreau observed sharply. Socrates and his friends saw conversation, dialogue, meeting together, as important and energizing - they rose to the occasion!

Moreover, their dialogues enabled them to clarify the values by which they lived. These conversations stimulated them to express their own opinion, and have it fully heard and responded to by others. Then, they listened fully to alternative views, and were challenged to correct their own lazy or fallacious concepts.

Finally, the process of engaging in such conversations honed their minds, whatever the topic. Today, mental health experts proclaim the necessity for just this kind of interaction for the robust development of our brains, from infancy to old age. "Use It or Lose It" has become a commandment for mental well-being. One of the most readily available and powerful ways to do that is by putting "More Thought in Your Talk."

Today, we can enjoy and benefit from this kind of "grand talk" -- talk that goes beyond the usual trivialities of weather, sports, shopping, TV and movies (though it can include provocative, thought-provoking "takes" on even those familiar topics).

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NEWS RELEASE ON THE COLUMBIA PROGRAM:

STUDENTS GRAPPLE WITH MAJOR IDEAS
IN SOCRATIC CONVERSATIONS
AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Socrates is haunting the halls of academe at Columbia University.

Students are engaging in spirited discussions of ideas and issues ranging from “The Pursuit of Happiness” and “Democratic Leadership,” to “Holidays Deconstructed” and “Bullshit” (impelled by a best-selling book by a professor of philosophy at Princeton). The gatherings are inspired by the Greek Gafly’s conversations with his friends in the marketplace of 5th century Athens.

“Students join these sessions out of their interest in ideas, in issues, and in each other,” says Ronald Gross, who conducts the sessions which are based on methods described in his book Socrates’ Way (www.SocratesWay.com)

.“This is learning for the joy of learning, and for helping to shape a good life in a just society. There are no assignments, no textbooks, no attendance sheets, no tests, and no academic credit.” Gross co-chairs the University Seminar on Innovation in Education (www.columbiaseminar.org) and has launched groups to revive meaningful conversation and civic discourse throughout the U.S. and abroad.

The conversations, which are sponsored by the Gottesman Libraries, 525 W. 120th St., range broadly and probe deeply into the basic challenges of life, as did Socrates’ encounters that launched Western philosophy. They are informed by the latest literature which is at hand at each session for reference and follow-up. The conversations have already generated thinking and insights of keen interest to the whole campus community.

Said one participant in a Conversation on “The Pursuit of Happiness”: “I found new, personal meaning in what I’ve been reading. Sitting in that circle, you get a chance to put it all together, use it to challenge others, and be nudged to sharpen your own thinking.”

The project helps fulfill the Libraries’ mission of building a sense of community on campus. “These meetings enliven the intellectual atmosphere, and model dialogue and discussion as modes of inquiry,” says Jennifer Govan, project director and assistant director of the Libraries.

Gross conducts Conversations twice a month from September through April, in the late afternoon to engage commuting students as well as those on campus during the day. They are held in a living-room atmosphere, with background music by Moby and refreshments including Diet Hemlock.

Socratic Conversations have also been held in conjunction with major events and conferences, such as the International Symposium on African Diasporic Languages and Education, Disabilities Awareness Week, the CIES Conference on Global Equity in Education, the launch of the curriculum created around Spike Lee's HBO film on Katrina, and the incident in which a noose was placed on the office door of an African-American faculty member.

Quotes from the Conversations are featured on posters in the Café, and students are invited to add new thoughts on a flip-chart.

The project is being seen as a serviceable model by visitors from other institutions, ranging from Adelphi University on Long Island and Ramapo College in New Jersey, to All Soul’s Church in Manhattan which has started an “Adventure in Ideas” group and Hunter High School.