DEVELOPMENT AND RULES OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL CAFÉ 
("CLASSIC" CAFÉ AND "CONCENTRATED" CAFÉ)

The philosophical Café is an event of discussion and open debate for all those who are interested in participating actively and for those who just want to listen. 

Participants sit in a great circle to permit an horizontal discussion. The sessions start with the participation of the moderator, who presents the speaker and the issue to be discussed at the Café. After this the speaker, elected democratically in the session of the past week presents the issue for about 15 to 30 minutes. After this the moderator points out the rules of procedure of the discussion:

1. A person who has not talked yet, has priority in the turn to participate.
2. The moderator can participate in the discussion under the same conditions than the rest of the participants (apart from leading the discussion)

General rules of the philosophical café

In the "Concentrated Café", the discussion starts based on the quotes, that eventually are presented in form of a brief philosophical recital.

After the session there is a voting on the issue for next week. Anybody can propose an issue. It has to be formulated as a question that has to be answered next week. The person who proposes an issue has to assume the responsibility in advance to come to present the issue next session. Then there is the non-excluding voting session, which means that everybody may vote for ALL the issues that he considers interesting.

Even though, in general, the philosophical cafés have been characterized for the respect for the exposed ideas and for the way different participants have approached different issues, we have considered it necessary to establish the following:

GENERAL RULES OF THE ASSOCIATION:

1. It is not permitted to have mobile phones on. It is not permitted to answer calls in the hall or in the bathroom, during the session of the philosophical café.
2. It is not permitted to record, unless one have got the permission of  the members of the board of the association to do so.
3. It is not permitted to consume alcoholic drinks during the philosophical café, nor perform any other distracting activity  that would interrupt the session.
4. The association reserves the right to refuse admission to people that are evidently drunken or drugged, or to people that repeatedly have broken the rules of the association.
5. No physical threats or aggressions are permitted.
6. It is not permitted to insult individuals in relation to their physical looks (ethnicity, race, gender, esthetical judgment, etc.). This includes referring to them with diminutives or nick-names (e.g. to use expressions like "japs", "chicks", etc.).
7. It is not permitted to focus the participation on the attack to a certain ethnical group. In that sense, it is forbidden to identify a certain political position or attitude to a specific ethnical group  (e.g. terrorist Arabs, Zionist Jews, dangerous foreigners, pure Germans, etc.) leading to xenophobic or racist attitudes.  
8. It is not permitted to focus the participation on undervaluing or insulting in reference to sex or gender. It is not permitted to use concepts as "woman" or "homosexual" as if they were insults (e.g. "he cried like a girl/woman", "homosexual= pervert"). In that sense it is recommended, in general, not to use pejorative words with sexual connotation (e.g. whore, bitch, bent, sissy, etc.) in your participations. 
9. If a participant presents information with the pretension that it should be assumed as scientific knowledge, historical facts or facts of concrete life, he must indicate his sources, or otherwise present them as an hypothesis to be confirmed, i.e. "If X were true, then "Y". 
10. Participants will begin their participation, stating what they are going to do, i.e. if they are going to refute an argument of another participant, if they are providing new arguments in favor of the view of another participant, if they will propose a new perspective to deal with a question, etc. 
11. The café-moderator may interrupt a participation and/or deny the right to participate to those who do not respect the rules of the Café or the association.
12. The rules will NOT be discussed DURING the session.