Christopher Phillips has devoted his life to carrying the torch of Socrates and his quest to
Know Thyself.? Yet upon the death of his beloved father and mentor the originator of the
burgeoning global Socrates Café movement had little choice but to confront the inescapable
truth: that there are some things we cannot know for sure. This moving insightful and
ultimately hopeful and helpful blend of memoir and philosophical exploration begins in
Phillips' native stomping grounds of the tiny volcanic island of Nisyros Greece and unfurls
through space and time as the author explores the connections between his immediate
circumstances and the eternal wisdom of popular philosophers. -In this personal and probing
book the acclaimed ?philosopher for the people' shares lessons gleaned from his intimate and
often unexpected encounters with uncommonly perceptive human beings both living and long
deceased in the form of weary travelers and some of history's greatest thinkers from
Heraclitus to Dr. Cornel West. Along the way he charts a pathway for sculpting what
Shakespeare describes as a soul of goodness ? which meshes with Plato's paradigm-shattering
conception of the healthiness of soul.? For those struggling to overcome the hopelessness that
can result from grievous loss setback or betrayal - what Phillips' touchstone Percy Blythe
Shelley calls life circumstances darker than death or night? - the author spotlights with
philosophical prescriptions both timely and timeless how to cultivate a ?Socratic spirit' that
leads to renewed love forbearance and hope at the other end of the tunnel.
