A Coffee for Socrates

"Bringing philosophy to the general public." "Putting philosophy on the street, woven into everyone's lives." These could be the mottos of this book by Frenchman Marc Sautet, who, as a political philosopher, is not a specialist in moral philosophy, ensuring an enjoyable and accessible read for all. His merits lie not only in bringing philosophical questions to open and public debate, outdoors, as in the Socratic "agora"—he opened the first of these venues in 1992 at the Café des Phares in Paris—but also in being the pioneer in creating a consulting room to assist people distressed by the problems of the end of the millennium. Sautet manages to reinvest in philosophy at a time when it seemed destined for the confines of academic research, reclaiming the Greek origins of the word and freeing it from the confines of the university.