Hello Izzie,

Thank you for submitting us some topics. I think I have a preference for the second one : Are we as civilised as animals ?

Specially if you have read an article about it, which can be used as a starting point to launch the debate.

I hope Fred, Konstantinos, and may be another friend of mine will join.

I look forwards to sharing with all the group.

Cheers.

Hey Izzie,

Let's talk about sex!  When was the last time we had a discussion involving sexuality or anything involving sex?

Deepak

let's talk about homicide. can there be a moral reason ? in our society, in any society?

"an eye for an eye"

Here are a few other topic ideas raised at the Café Philo tonight :

- To what extent are we driven by our desires and can we change / control our desires?

- To what extent have seduction codes evolved?

- What part our fantasies play in our lives?

Yep... we had quite a sex oriented discussion tonight...

Here is another topic that was suggested to me today:

" Can a childless life being meaningful?"

Many thanks for this interesting idea

For the record, here are a few other topics mentioned (not discussed yet) at past Café Philos in Lausanne:

1) How could our society learn to live without money?

2) What would the ideal political system be?

3) Is there a norm in sexuality?

4) Should marriage only be between a man and a woman?

5) Does democracy exist and can it work in every society?

NB: some topics may need to be rephrased in a more philosophical question in order to open the discussion a bit more.

I thought the topic for Sunday had been " how do men and women communicate?".Interesting - and very telling - to see which direction it went in!

1) excuse me can I help: you confounded with the cafe science fiction topic
(they have proposed: life on space tomorrow; lets go back to Cro-Magnon's life all together) 

3) I dream to join your group which seems to be fun

4) And also because you are not afraid of consequences of sensitive subjects

2)5) Thanks for stimulating to go further. Can one improve existing democracy?

LOL you're welcome to join our discussions Jeremiade

You'll find the dates of our next Cafés in Lausanne together with an introduction of the event on that page:

http://www.glocals.com/groups/lausanne/lausanne-open-minds-group.htm

Our group tries to be as open-minded and respectuf as possible, hence we should be able to discuss any topic more or less sensitive... almost... well, at least we try

You know what they say... sex sells!

More seriously, I've noticed indeed that the topics that seem to interest people most in general are relationships, love and sex... same thing on the Glocals' forum threads... it's interesting to see that the same questions are raised again and again and never seem to find an answer... or at least not one answer...

Hope to see you soon! Take care

Here is an interesting topic proposed by Elisabeth:

"Is honesty always the best policy or are some things better left unsaid?"

Elisabeth's topic is an excellent one - let's keep it in mind?

Sure - let's propose it at next Café Philo

I've not (yet) participated in a Café Philo. However, 2 topics that I would love to participate in a debate on are:

1. Does EVERYTHING happen for a reason?
2. Do you make your own luck in life?

Some people prefer to phrase it as a "childfree" life. One can have children in one's lives without parenting them biologically or through adoption...

Sorry, that should read "one's life."

If the subject will be once "do you make your own luck in life?" as Armorel proposed, I'll definitely be in!

How much happiness can you handle?

Does it always have to be the 150%? Or would being thankful for the "only" 80% mean more satisfaction in life? 

That's "my" topic currently. Interesting for others too?

next subject for discussion: Humility, a help or a hindrance ?

Hi folks,

I've postponed the topic voted at last café philo - "Do we choose our sexuality?" - to June 30th in order to enable the person who proposed the topic to attend.

Consequently, we need a new topic for this coming Sunday.

Anyone is welcomed to propose new topic ideas on this thread.

On Wednesday (May 29th), I'll send a Doodle poll link to all members of the Open-Minds group to vote. The topic which will obtain the majority will be discussed on Sunday (June 2nd) at 7pm at the Benjamin bar of Hotel de la Paix in Lausanne.

The Open-Minds group is "luckily" open to everybody (as all groups on Glocals). Feel free to join us.

Many thanks in advance for your inputs.

You can find a list of all the topics already discussed on this Google Docs link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HqfTTYR3ScsjH7gRVDGIfoF_Qb1VWgTBwWR4Na2SOH0/edit?usp=sharing

Among the topics posted on this thread, the followings were discussed:

- Does democracy exist and can it work in every society?

- Marriage for all (basically the same as "Should marriage only be between a man and a woman?")

- Democracy: does it exist and can it work in every society?

- Is honesty always the best policy or are some things better left unsaid?

- Do we make our own luck in life?

- Humility, a help or a hindrance?

Now here is a small record of the topics proposed at previous café philos but which didn't obtain the majority of votes. They can be proposed again:

- How can we know oneself?

- What is peace?

- Is there too much choice and is choice always good?

- Can we free our minds from labels?

- Do we need love?

- When do we take or surrender responsibility in our lives?

- Does happiness depend on ourselves?

- How important is sex in our lives?

- What do your clothes say about you?

- What is human nature?

- What is feminism?

- What is the role of the ego?

- Parenthood: should everyone have the right to have a child?

- What is emotional intelligence?

- Is human testing ethical?

- Do you believe in destiny?

- Is love a reason for being together or a consequence of being together?

- Is it good or bad to be volontarily vulnerable?

- What is the role of authority and what are its limits?

- What is a reasonable person?

- How free are we?

Damn... looks like there are much more interesting threads ongoing today

Great suggestions Amorel, I would love to come to a debate on either of these!

Hi Izzie, I just joined Philo club and here are

New topics suggestions:

1.About love: what is love, romantic love, why we are looking for love, love from a point of view of sociology, psycology,neuroscience. 

2.Russia- Ukraine

3. How to ba happy from now on

4. Free in internet space

5.My digital profile and security

I suggest to talk about love, romantic love first and then about sex?! what do you think?

Hi Olga,

Thanks for your interest in Café philo.

Allegra has taken over the organisation of the Café Philo in English in Lausanne since I moved to Austria. Unfortunately, as I started this thread, she won't receive your topic suggestions.

The best is to attend Café Philo and give your list of topics to Allegra. Café Philo events are announced on this group page where you can also leave a comment as a member:

http://www.glocals.com/groups/lausanne-open-minds-group.htm

Enjoy Café Philo and all the best!

Izzie

Hi Izzie! Are you planning a trip to Lausanne to visit cafe philo some time? It would be so nice- like old times.

How is life in Austria going?

Hi Tracey!

Thanks for your kind message.

Unfortunately I have not planned any trip to Lausanne in the near future but would love to visit café philo some time. I miss our interesting debates. I hope to do something similar soon in Austria.

At the moment, I am not working. I am attending an intensive German course every day for 3 hours and I am preparing my wedding that will be celebrated in 5 weeks from now. We got married at the city hall in October last year already but we decided to postpone the celebration in order to allow my family from Italy and France to travel to Austria for the occasion.

We could arrange a Skype date if you'd like to chat. Would be nice.

Take care, ciao ciao! 

Hi,

There is a Cafe Philo in Geneva. And there are several public speaking clubs in Lausanne, Geneva and Nyon from Toastmasters International. Would you like to give that a try ? Send me a private message.

Regards,

Aires

Just phrasing the question this way: "Should marriage only be between a man and a woman?"

Hits all the wrong notes for me -even if it is in the form of a question. I certainly agree that it promotes debate, as it immediately made me want to comment on this thread.

Being gay mayself, and struggling to have the same rights that heterosexuals enjoy by default, to me this question sounds absolutely ludicrous. People who think that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, are wrong. 

You might disagree with me, which would be fine. You might dislike homosexuality, which would be fine too -everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But authorities should treat all people equally, regardless of how people feel about it. Regardless of what any religion says about it. They should defend their minorities, instead of discriminating against them.

I pay taxes, just like heterosexuals do. Yet I do not have the same rights they do. How is that fair?

You are right to be annoyed about the phrasing.The thing is,the questions often reflect the prejudices and stereotyping of our society - they could not do otherwise since they are proposed by members of that society- but they then open the possibility of challenging those assumptions And received ideas.Cafe Philo is a place where one often has to confront people's prejudices( even as a heterosexual woman,you will come up against plenty of those!) but it is a great place to challenge and unpick people's assumptions and ideas and open up - and maybe even change- people's opinions.

why not give it a go?

I totally concur with what you are saying Claudia. My witness at my wedding is my life time best friend who happens to be gay. He has been in an over-20 year relationship and is now happy to have the choice to get married or not in his country... They have decided not to tie the knot, but that's their personal choice and I am happy they were able to make this choice at the "civil" level. The problem is that his sexual orientation is in conflit with his religious believes and he wishes more openness from their religion... I am afraid this will take a longer time to happen.

It's a great topic indeed. There would plenty to say about it.

Café Philo gets interesting when we discuss with people who do not concur with our ideas though. It's tough but a great training: listening, with respect, to ideas that may shock and being able to find the counter-arguments. Listening with humility in order to understand where the other's ideas come from and not just listening to reply. Let oneself be shaken in order to grow... Sigh... I miss café philo!  Quoting Buzzcocks, "why not give it a go?"

PS: are you sure you rephrased the question, it pretty much seems the same...

I could not agree more with what you both said: it is a very interesting topic, and I do believe that listening to other ideas and counter-arguments in order to undestand where they are coming from does enable us to increase our understanding of any subject. 

I was just in Bangladesh a couple of weeks ago doing research, and I was able to meet great people who fight for freedom of expression and who are considered to be very open-minded for the local culture. One of them told me, for instance, that he disagrees with the Bangladeshi law that states people can be given up to life imprisonment for being gay -he told me he thought it was ridiculous. He then added that he thought gay people (LGTBI really), were not guilty for having that "unnatural" like, that it was a sickness and that they should not be blamed for it, for "it was probably all part of god's plan".

While his thinking was very very different from mine, I do think that I learned a lot just by having that conversation with him -we probably both did. For instance, I had kind of forgotten that, just 26 years ago (not a lot), the World Health Organization considered homosexuality to be a sickness. So I guess we have come a long way since then 

Unfortunately at this time (as part of my research actually), I am in Lima, Peru, gathering surveys for my research project, so I won't be able to attend. But I certainly wish I could! I would love to share some ideas.

All the best,

-Claudia.