Christopher Phillips ’97 MAT is Living a Life of His Own Choosing

Christopher Phillips ’97 hadn’t planned to pursue higher education, a surprising revelation considering he has earned a BA in government from William & Mary, an MA in Humanities from California State University-Dominguez, an MS in Natural Sciences from Delta State University and a PhD in Communications from Edith Cowan University, in addition to an MA in Teaching Philosophy for Children from Montclair. Prior to his many academic accomplishments, he was more than happy to learn about Greek philosophers and Hellenic values from his beloved Greek grandmother, his Yiayia Calliope and his father Alexander. 

After completing his undergraduate degree, Phillips roamed the world writing freelance magazine articles about the unsung heroes among us. It was while on vacation in San Francisco that, fortuitously, he happened upon an announcement about Montclair’s Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children. 

“I was strolling through the corridors of the Department of Philosophy at the San Francisco State University,” he recalls. “A flyer in one of those glass-paneled cases caught my eye. It was about a program at Montclair that prepared educators to teach philosophy to children. I knew immediately that this was where I was meant to be.” 

Phillips contacted the University immediately. “I learned that all of the available scholarships and assistantships had been taken, so first I attended a two-week intensive summer conference that had been organized by the program,” he says. “I was more smitten than ever. I simply couldn’t, wouldn’t, let that be the end of my experience. I was determined to matriculate in the full one-year graduate program. Thanks to then-Graduate School Dean Carla Narrett, to whom I breathlessly shared my goals, she made available to me an assistantship – teaching an 8:00 a.m. section of undergraduate Spanish.” 

As for his own coursework, Phillips found the instruction at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children to be powerful. “The classes designed by co-founders Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp were all organized as round-table inquiry,” he explains. “The reading requirements were rigorous and we were tasked with preparing questions to explore with our classmates and professors. It was a revolutionary learning experience.” 

Phillips credits his Montclair experience with expanding his thirst for learning as well as gaining confidence in his scholarly abilities – a confidence that led to him presenting his master’s thesis, on the concept of justice, at a noted academic conference called Paideia, convened in Boston.  

Phillips’s time at Montclair resulted in another, even more profound, result. “I met my wife, Cecilia, a fellow student who had already earned her bachelor’s degree in philosophy at a university in Mexico City,” he says. “Cecilia matriculated with a scholarship in the program at Montclair State University, after teaching in an indigenous community in Chiapas, Mexico. None of what I have accomplished since would have been possible without her. We are a team – and a team of four now with two precious daughters!”  

The deeper Phillips dove into his philosophy studies, the more he found himself wanting to bring the discipline to people outside of academia. Thus, the Socrates Café was born in a Bloomfield Avenue coffee shop.  

“Once you commit to an off-the-beaten-path journey, unexpected things happen,” Phillips points out. “During one of our sessions, a reporter from The New York Times happened to walk by and saw our little group talking animatedly. Not only was she curious about what we were doing, she was Greek! She published a piece about the Socrates Café, and then the movement really took off. After 30 years, it has more momentum than ever. We now have approximately 500 ongoing groups worldwide.” 

Phillips visits as many Socrates Café groups as possible, even as he oversees offshoots including Democracy Café, Constitution Café, Shakespeare Cafe, Spirit of ‘76 Cafe (the title of an upcoming book) and Philosophers’ Club for children and youth. “At the heart of all of it is the importance of meaningful inquiry that leads to a whole host of new and bracing answers and insights,” he says. “Philosophical questions, as timely as they are timeless, are a springboard for not just sharing our stories, guided by the Socratic Method, but in a way that leads to discovering uncommon ground.” 

Although Phillips has earned multiple degrees, he considers the work he did at Montclair to be the most transformative. “I don’t think my life would have unfolded the way it did if it hadn’t been forthe Montclair program,” he says. “I learned to ask myself what I might feel if I didn’t explore new paths. That’s how I ended up accepting a fellowship in a PhD program in Australia.” 

Even as he grew his global grassroots Socrates Cafe initiative through the nonprofit DemocracyCafe.org, Phillips built a career as a teacher and scholar, including as a research and senior writing fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, a senior education fellow with the National Constitution Center and a Network Ethics Fellow with Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. He also became a bestselling author.  

“I never dreamed about writing books,” he says. “It started as another serendipitous way of sharing my passion about philosophy, and to let others know about some of the Café’s most memorable gatherings. I was having amazing conversations in places like prisons, nursing homes and mental health facilities. There were, and are, fascinating and important stories to tell.” 

To date, he has published more than 10 philosophy-focused books for children and youth, including the recent Finnegan the Philosofish Fights Global Warming, as well as six for adults, including Soul of Goodness, published in 2022 with a foreword by Dr. Cornel West. His writings have been translated into multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic. 

Phillips will return to Montclair in the near future and revisit the hallowed stomping grounds where his own life trajectory took a unique turn. He’s thrilled to have an opportunity to share what he has learned with today’s Montclair students. “Montclair itself is a bit of an unsung hero,” he says. “The professors are amazingly gifted and impassioned, and there are so many extracurricular opportunities for building leadership skills and cultivating resilience.” 

“Most students – even those living independently – still face a world of expectations from others about what they should do with their lives,” Phillips continues. “They should, more than ever, dare to live and choose their own path. Living creatively and meaningfully involves taking sublime risks, and Montclair State University gives you the tools and confidence for embarking on an extraordinary life journey.”