Our sessions
📍Casino for Social Medicine (Sonnenalle 100, 12045 Berlin)
📆 3rd Wednesday of each month (we'll try to keep it as regular as possible!—See each session's plan to confirm)
⏰ 18:30 - 20:30
Follow each link to know about what is going to happen and/or what happened on each of our sessions:
General presentation (our motto)
As the core activity of the PCP, this monthly Philosophy Café engages a philosophical practice that centers intuition, the analysis of convergences and divergences in conceptual creation, and the (re-)application of our philosophical practice to our daily lives. Together, we will explore, connect, and collaborate in order to reveal the common and the unique patterns of thought that we construct with others, and that we would like to create. To do so, each Café is focused on one concept.
Why participate?
In line with the general proposal of the PCP, the Café is a non-academic space-time of collaborative and cooperative philosophical experimentation, in which intuition functions as a “trigger” of philosophical activity. In this sense, intuition is also the way in which we make philosophy occupy the encounter. The café, as we say, is not only a space, but also a temporality to be explored, to be built, to be found collectively. Hence, we neither fear nor deny the “aha!” moments or the serendipity inherent in experimentation. We believe that words, although far from being able to account for the complexity of reality, play a very important role in the process of shaping the world. Hence, intuitively exploring one concept at a time is also an exercise that gives us back a picture of how we create our world. An important part of our proposal is to make us more aware that the link between philosophy and intuition is an experience in itself, not just one to be acquired but one that happens in its execution, as if it were a permanent gerund.
The extended proposal
How It Came About
The Philosophy Café was created with the aim of offering a diverse and inclusive space where people can learn from one another through a philosophical method that encourages collaborative inquiry, critical reflection, and conceptual exploration. This is not just about talking philosophy—it’s about doing it together, in a way that is open, accessible, and grounded in shared curiosity.We believe philosophy should be available outside academic institutions, and that it loses much of its power when restricted to academic formats and expectations. While there are many excellent philosophy initiatives in the city, they often reproduce barriers typical of academia—specialized vocabulary, assumptions of prior knowledge, high levels of abstraction, and a tendency toward debate rather than cooperative inquiry. At the Café, we work to remove those barriers. We create a space where expert knowledge is not expected, where complex ideas are translated into shared language, and where intuition becomes a valid starting point for philosophical engagement.
Code of Conduct - How We’d Like to Do Philosophy
We are fortunate to gather in a space that is welcoming and cared for—a space that hosts many important and creative events. In this context, we want to build something temporary together: a gathering in which we explore not just philosophical topics, but philosophy itself, understood as a particular way of relating to the world, to ourselves, and to each other.From the beginning, we’ve wanted this space to be intentionally different from both academic spaces and typical forms of public debate. That’s why we’ve developed a basic code of conduct—not as fixed rules, but as shared agreements. These help us move away from the biases and exclusions of academic philosophy, and also from argumentation styles that shut down reflection instead of opening it. What we propose is a form of philosophical care—an approach that defines how we practice philosophy and how we engage with one another.
Philosophical care also means inclusion: openness to a range of concepts, voices, and ways of thinking. We encourage everyone to participate in shaping the discussion, and we welcome different levels of experience. One key aspect of inclusion is distinguishing philosophical inquiry from political debate. While politics might inform our views, we aim to suspend political positioning to make room for shared exploration. In this space, no one has “the truth,” and all views are provisional.
We ask participants to leave any rigid ideological positions—the “isms”—at the door. Philosophy, for us, is not about defending a political stance but about staying with questions, testing intuitions, and thinking together. We also emphasize that people are not their ideas. What someone expresses—whether it’s an intuition, belief, or opinion—does not necessarily define who they are. What you say is not necessarily what you do, and your view is not necessarily your identity.
To support this, we invite everyone to express their relationship to the ideas they share. Are they grounded in a personal feeling? A political experience? A practice? A doubt? Rather than debating or challenging others directly, we encourage participants to focus on the claims themselves. We speak from our own position—using “I” statements instead of “you” statements—and we direct our attention to the ideas in question. This helps create a space where views can change and where philosophical transformation becomes possible.
Operational Notes
There are a few practical things to keep in mind. Sometimes we collect the materials created during a session—anonymously or with names, depending on each person’s preference—but names are never published. We may take photos to document the process, with consent. Feedback is welcome and can be sent via email within a week of the session, using a short worksheet we’ll provide.How It Is Structured
Introduction
Each session begins with a short introduction by PCP's team. We present the theme or concept for the day in a brief, open-ended way—enough to suggest why it’s important and what kind of questions it might raise, without narrowing the scope or offering a final definition. The goal is to spark interest and prepare the ground for personal exploration.Philosophical Techniques – Individual Work
After the introduction, participants engage in individual work using three philosophical techniques. These are tools to help you discover and articulate your own intuitions about the day’s concept. You don’t need to have any prior philosophical training to use them. Each technique is accompanied by guiding questions, and you can work through them at your own pace. The PCP's team will be available for questions or clarifications.- The first technique is intuition-checking: What do you intuitively think the concept means? Where does this intuition come from? How does it feel? Are there common groupings or contrasts that come to mind?
- The second is working with examples and non-examples: Can you think of situations or cases that clearly fit the concept, and others that clearly don’t? What do these cases tell you about how the concept functions?
- The third is extension: How could this concept apply beyond the obvious? What relevance might it have for your experiences, or for thinking differently about something you already know?