SFCP - Society for the Furtherance of the Critical Philosophy

In the 1920s the Kantian philosopher Leonard Nelson and his co-worker Minna Specht founded an  experimental critical philosophy school in Germany.  When the Nazi’s came to power in at the end of the 1930’s the school fled to Britain.  The SFCP was established in 1940 to support the school. Over the years the society has expanded its aims of supporting Socratic methods in education and now organizes philosophical conferences, runs Socratic Dialogues, publishes books and its own journal. 

In recent years SFCP has

• Arranged Socratic Seminars for half days, full days and weekends which have  included students in secondary schools, teachers of mathematics, education managers and other groups with very mixed backgrounds. 

• Introduced Educationists To The Socratic Approach to learning and teaching. With the introduction of citizenship into the UK school curriculum and the growing interest in philosophy, SFCP is focusing more on acquainting teachers with the Socratic method as a valuable tool for these developing subjects.  In the summer of 2004 and 2005 we ran residential courses over three weekends on  'The Socratic Approach to Learning and Teaching'. The SFCP has also introduced Socratic Dialogue to a University Department and a Secondary school, and is working with educationalists from several institutions.

• Sponsored Scholarly Research at doctoral and post-doctoral levels;

• Trained New Socratic Facilitators. In response to growing interest in Socratic Dialogue, several one-day sessions were held during 2005 and 2006.  The programme for 2007 includes weekend dialogues which will be facilitated by trainees from the Facilitator Training Group.

• Established the Occasional Working Papers in Ethics and the Critical Philosophy in 1998 in which various articles about Socratic Dialogue, including an English translation of Nelson’s essay on the Socratic method, among other topics, have appeared

•  Published books including Enquiring Minds: Socratic Dialogue in Education (Trentham 2004) and Ethics and Socratic Dialogue in Civil Society (LIT Verlag 2004).

• Networked To Extend Interest In Critical Philosophy And Socratic Dialogue among professionals across disciplines and to encourage the fostering of ethical practice in everyday life.  A two-day residential conference (at Eynsham) was convened in 1999 on “Ethics in Practice in the 21st Century”.  This resulted in a published record of the Conference Proceedings and laid the basis for further co-operation with a range of people and organisations. To receive a copy of the proceedings from the conference click here. A further two day course on 'Re-inventing European civil society: learning from each other" was jointly convened by the society and the PPA (see below)  in 2004. This was attended by people from Eastern and Western Europe.

• Managed  a mailing list to which anyone interested in SFCP activities can be added.  A news bulletin is sent out from time to time and publications like the Occasional Working Papers mentioned above are listed and available on request. 

• Expanded its international co-operation with its sister organisations the PPA (Philosophisch-Politische Akademie) and the Dutch Network (see box) to organise a number of International Conferences and International Socratic Dialogues.

The Socratic Method

 The Socratic method encourages participants to reflect and think independently and critically.  Socratic Dialogue is practiced in small groups with the help of a facilitator, so that self-confidence in one’s own thinking is enhanced and the search for truth in answer to a particular question is undertaken in common.  No prior philosophical training is needed, provided participants are motivated to try the method, are willing to contribute their honest thoughts and to listen to those of others.  The questions, drawn from ethics, politics, epistemology, mathematics and psychology, are of a general and fundamental nature.  The endeavour of the group is to reach consensus, not as an aim in itself, but as a means to deepen the investigation.

International Conferences

1996  The First International Conference on 'The Critical Philosophy' was held in Hillcroft College in Surbiton, Surrey, organised by SFCP and supported by PPA.  

1998 The Second International Conference ‘The Dutch Experience’ was held in Leusden in the Netherlands, organised by the Dutch Network and supported by PPA and SFCP. 

2000 The Third International Conference on Socratic Dialogue and Ethics was held in July in Loccum, Germany, organised by the PPA and GSP, supported by SFCP

2002 The Fourth International Conference  28 July – 3 August on Ethics And Socratic Dialogue In Civic Society  Birmingham, United Kingdom

2005 5th International Conference 25. July – 29. July  The Challenge of Dialogue Socratic Dialogue and Other Forms of Dialogue in Different Political Systems and Cultures at ver.di – Bildungs- und Begegnungszentrum, Clara Sahlberg, Berlin-Wannsee,  Germany

International Sister Organizations

PPA -(Philosophisch-Politische Akademie) Political Philosophical Academy

PPA is dedicated to the promotion of critical philosophy, particularly as espoused by the German philosopher Leonard Nelson (1882-1927) and his followers, in its application to social and political life. In his writings, Nelson was concerned mainly with ethics, pedagogy and politics, and in all three fields he tried to put his theories into practice. He was an ethical socialist, he adapted Socrates` method of searching for truth, developing the neo-Socratic method for group work, finally he founded the PPA to further develop and promote his philosophical ideas. Founded in 1922, PPA was, of course, banned by the Nazis but was re-established in 1949.

The Academy organises conferences on political and philosophical subjects, sponsors the publication of books, initiates a scientific prize competition and, last but not least, supports Socratic seminars.  

GSP (Gesellschaft für Sokratisches Philosophieren)- Society of Socratic Facilitators

 GSP’s purpose is to develop Socratic Dialogue (SOCRATIC DIALOGUE) in practice as well as in theory in the tradition of Nelson and Gustav Heckmann (1898-1996) who developed Nelson’s Socratic method further, and to train facilitators.  An increasing number of Socratic courses have been organised by GSP in co-operation with PPA, in different parts of Germany.  The interest in our Socratic work has grown over the years, and with it the need for more facilitators.  During the 1980s and 1990s, courses have been held three to five times a year, recruiting up to 40 people each time who work in small SOCRATIC DIALOGUE groups of 7 – 10 participants.  Weekend seminars were introduced in response to demand. 

Furthermore, annual academic conferences related to the methodology of SOCRATIC DIALOGUE have been added.  The series Sokratisches Philosophieren (LIT Verlag) serves as a forum for discussion and also includes relevant papers.  Beyond this, GSP contributes to the training of school teachers by acquainting them with SOCRATIC DIALOGUE which will be valuable to those who are introducing the subject “practical philosophy” in the school curriculum.

 Dutch Network of Socratic Facilitators

 The Neo-Socratic Dialogue was introduced in the Netherlands around 1980.  Now there are about 25 Dutch facilitators.  Most of them are united in a “network”, born out of the desire to exchange and learn from each other’s experiences (“intervision”) and so to improve their skills in facilitating Socratic Dialogues.  Another purpose of the network is to promote the different forms of SOCRATIC DIALOGUE, with different participants, but also in the context of business consultancy.  In the network many aspects of the method of SOCRATIC DIALOGUE have been investigated; new ‘arrangements’ for SOCRATIC DIALOGUE and training programmes for facilitators have been developed.  This has been stimulated by the circumstance that all have experience in the application of Socratic Dialogue in the context of business consultancy.  Besides this, Socratic Dialogues are offered in secondary and higher education and in adult education.  Several Dutch facilitators have facilitated Socratic Dialogues abroad, in English, German and French, have contributed to several international conferences and have trained Socratic facilitators abroad. 

 For further information please contact: 

SFCP

Dr Rene Saran, 22 Kings Gardens, London NW6 4PU, UK

Tel.:  00 44 (0) 20 7328 1286

Fax:   00 44 (0) 20 7328 2552

E-Mail:  rene.saran@sfcp.org.uk

http://www.sfcp.org.uk

PPA/GSP

Dr. Dieter Krohn, An den Papenstücken 21, D 30455 Hannover, Germany

Tel::  00 49 (0) 511 49 69 14

Fax:  00 49 (0) 511 47 17 00

E-Mail:  d.krohn@t-online.de

http://www.philosophisch-politische-akademie.de

Dutch Network of Socratic Facilitators

Dr Erik Boers, Akkerstraat 23, 5615 HP Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Tel.:  00 31 40 29 61 985

Fax:  00 31 40 29 61 986

E-Mail: erik.boers@hetnieuwetrivium.nl