Philosophy Cafe in Paris

My apartment phone rings. It's an annoying European ring tone, that I've never really liked, so I don't give my apartment phone number to many people.

"Florence, lets go to the Philosophy Cafe tonight!", my French friend Florence calls to say.
Florence is Parisian and loves Paris with as much passion as me.
She's one of those people that exudes excitement over the smallest things in life.

"Sure! What time?" I reply with equal enthusiasm.

"It starts at 7PM, but lets meet early!" she says.
And that begins an evening of Philosophy at the Cafe de Flore in central Paris.

"The Paris Philosophy Cafe in English" is a meetup group that meets once a month in the Latin Quarter, at Cafe de Flore.

Florence and Florence

(I love writing that, since I've never had a friend with the same name!)
Beautiful Cafe de Flore on an Autumn night.
The host speaks.
We listen.
"Philosophers"?.....Non!

Tonight, the topic voted on to discuss was: "How do we measure progress?"

Discussions ranged from, If the Good ol' Days were the best of times, then are we really making progress at all? to debates about Hegel (German philosopher who revolutionized European philosophy) and The Absolute Mind.

Meanwhile, The President's Philosophy for Today was: "Let's Find Those Areas Where We Can Agree"





Are we making progress? Americans don't all agree, The Philosophers did not find a resoloution, and I wonder if the question can really be answered, "How do we measure progress?"