World Philosophy Day - "Café philosophique"

This “Café philosophique” will be organized on 15 November 2018, in collaboration with the French National Commission, and with the participation of Barbara Cassin, in her capacity as initiator of the International Network of Women Philosophers and editor of the UNESCO Women Philosophers’ Journal, and Edwige Chirouter, holder of the UNESCO Chair in Philosophical Practices with Children at the University of Nantes (France).

The discussion will be a moment of convivial exchange around a café where the background of two or three exceptional women who marked the twentieth and the twenty-first century, in the spirit of UNESCO’s values, will be presented.

This Café will have a constructive role, that of evoking female personalities often forgotten of history whose actions and challenges overcome, are able to inspire youth but also examples of women today. The year 2018 being the 70th anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the theme of philosophy and human rights will be approached as well as the essential role of women in the writing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: tribute to Eleanor Roosevelt, Chair of the Drafting Committee of the Declaration, and Hansa Mehta, Great Lady of India. They will be presented by Claudine Monteil, a women's right specialist writer, and Penelope Dufourt, a young philosophy student.

One of the key issues is to raise youth awareness on open issues such as life or human rights. Everyone must be able to feel philosopher, to discuss and react on the theme "The role of women in philosophy".

The other objective of this "Café Femmes" will be to present avenues to encourage women in the trades and careers of their choice, and to be able to draw inspiration from the examples of their elders, both French and other member countries of UNESCO.