Every month about a dozen people gather at the South Portland Public Library to discuss broad philosophical questions. Every fourth Tuesday the group agrees on a topic question from the meaning behind love to the definition of freedom.

“Socrates CafA?©s,” as they’re called, have sprung up all over the country – in libraries, coffee shops, hospices and people’s living rooms. The South Portland group has been meeting for the past two years and as a second anniversary present Christopher Phillips – the recognized initiator of the movement to bring philosophy out of the realm of academia to the streets – will visit the group on Thursday, April 7, at 6:30 p.m. and facilitate a discussion.

Phillips led these type of philosophical discussion groups informally until he published his first book, “Socrates CafA?©: A Fresh Look at Philosophy.” This started a movement and groups began to spring up all over the country. This trip to South Portland will be Phillips’s third trip to speak to a discussion group – he also facilitated the discussion at the first meeting of the South Portland group – and he will be promoting the softcover publication of his third book, “Six Questions of Socrates.”

Tyla Shaefer is an employee at the library and coordinator of the South Portland Socrates CafA?©. She explained that Socrates CafA?© is not about changing minds, but opening minds and forcing people to examine their assumptions. People often leave with more questions than answers.

“Socrates CafA?©s are not a debate, but a collaboration … we’re learning to think harder, to think more rigorously,” she said.

Socrates CafA?© meets every fourth Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the main branch of South Portland Public Library. Everybody is welcome. “All you need is an open mind,” said Schaefer.