Julian Baggini talks with Nick Campion: Coffee, Philosophy and the Good Life

In 1906, Kakuzō Okakura published an extraordinary short book, The Book of Tea, which beautifully expressed the core ideas of the Japanese blend of Zen and Daoist thought. A century later, Julian Baggini has updated the book for the 21st century, with coffee at its centre, showing “Coffee’s capacity to awaken within us a proper sense of the world and our place in it.”

Baggini will argue that a proper appreciation of coffee can guide us towards a proper appreciation of life, where there is no distinction between the big and the small, the important and the trivial, the sacred and the profane. As Okakura said, it is an example of the importance of finding “beauty among the sordid facts of everyday life” in which we are reconciled to the transient, impermanence nature of being.

Julian will be joined by local speciality coffee roasters Clifton Coffee, anchoring the philosophical reflections in their deep knowledge of coffee making.

Whether you are a coffee lover or not, this talk will make you look at the small daily pleasures of food and drink in a new way.