A Monday night trip to the bookstore is more about crossing boundaries than buying the latest bestseller for some Tempe residents.
For the last three years, people have been meeting at Changing Hands bookstore to talk about the big questions that are most important to them. Topics for the group, inspired and named after a Christopher Phillips book titled "Socrates Café," can range from creating a definition of insanity to debating if there can be a just war.
"There is a small percentage of people who don't like the mundane American conversation at the water cooler," said group creator and moderator Wendy Shepherd.
Shepherd said she read "Socrates Café" several years ago and decided she needed an outlet to talk about philosophical questions.
Like others across the United States, she pitched the idea of starting a local Socrates Café to a community business that would attract other "people who like to think," she said.
Since then, her group has been meeting the third Monday of every month at Changing Hands. A second group led by Shepherd meets at Bookman's the first Monday of every month.
Moving conversations beyond entertainment gossip and sports scores is the major goal of the group, Shepherd said. She gets tired of constant small talk about TV, she added.
"I feel like television is a replacement for your own life," she said.
The group owes its emphasis on bringing philosophical questioning to everyday people to the "Socrates Café" book, which follows the real-life travels of a philosophy professor and the conversations he has with people in cafes across the country. Groups like Shepherd's begin by asking a simple, thought-provoking question that comes from the group members' own interests. Shepherd moderates the following hour and a half discussion to keep everyone on track.
"It gives people a space where they can express what they can't normally," Shepherd said.
A recent meeting of Tempe's Socrates Café focused on what is of value to people in modern life.
"We have some screwed up priorities, there's no doubt about that," said Chuck Newton, who has been attending the group for two years.
The 78-year-old related the conversation to his own life experiences, which include growing up in the Great Depression and serving in Korea during the '50s. He also drew connections with modern events like the tropical cyclone in Bangladesh.
At the other end of the age spectrum was Jeremy Martinez, in his early 20s and a first-timer to the group. He said variety in people's priorities is much greater now than it was in previous generations.
"You go to any college campus and you'll get tons of different answers," Martinez said.
Martinez said he heard about the group from a friend, and after the discussion, planned to come back.
"It's an opportunity to meet new people and have a place to talk about things like this," he said.
Newton said the different viewpoints of group members are what hold his interest in the group.
"They're interesting people from many walks of life and levels of education," he said.
Despite the diversity of the discussion participants, Shepherd said there is one quality that ties Socrates Café members together.
"Most of the people who come here are fairly open minded," she said. "It's about other perspectives and enjoying and appreciating and respecting each others' opinions even if they don't agree."
Reach the reporter at: claudia.koerner@asu.edu.
