Grounds For Debate, Coffee & Philosophy

I've been a cafe cruiser since I was 16 in the 80's. There was this great shop in Santa Rosa, I forgot what it's called-The True Life or Sweet Life Cafe, something-and we would go there after school and hang out. It was also part thrift store and everything in it was for sale. If you sat at a table, it was for sale, the chairs, for sale. The cups and saucers, my first cappuccino's, they were for sale. The owner also player music on this sick (if I recall correctly) Rhodes electric and the waitress was b*tchy. Good times, yo.

It's no wonder that when I grew up, I became those early teen memories. It is also my first experience with philosophy. Sitting at antique tables, waxing philosophical about what life is (as if we knew) and getting wired on good coffee. Well, now there is a book for that. Really. Remember books.

Scott F. Parker and Michael W. Austin will soon come out with Coffee: Philosophy For Everyone. It is a collection of essays geared for the lay person to encourage them to 1.) check out coffee shops and drink coffee, and 2.) get yer' philosophy on. It is a collection of essays from many writers and disciplines about everything coffee and the relationship with coffee.

Of course the topic of does God exist is in the book. I think when you open a coffee shop, it has to be blessed by a bunch of wired college students arguing over metaphysical naturalism v. the cosmological argument*.The nature of being (what is it like to experience coffee), the ethics of coffee (Starbucks and third world farmers) or the importance of the coffee shop itself (the place to slow down gives you the opportunity to attempt to think) are some of the essay topics in the book. It is intended to be an intro to philosophy and not all the authors are philosophers. Parker and Austin wanted to get a wide variety of thoughts and feelings concerning coffee and philosophy...and it seems that they achieved that.

As Christopher "Our Hero" Hitchens says, "Available at fine books stores everywhere." Awesome.

 Coffee: Grounds for Debate

* Met-Nat versus Cosmo Or atheist v. theist.