Philosophers will gather amid the celebrated vines of Saint-Émilion in southwest France today for a pioneering festival destined to stimulate lofty reflection over a bottle of wine.

The first European Festival of Philosophy will feature metaphysical debate, ethical exploration and – the organisers promise – a lot to eat and drink.

The aim is to bring philosophy to a wider audience in an atmosphere of festive celebration, according to Eric Le Collen, a special events producer who initiated the “fête of thought”.

He wants to breed a new generation of thinkers in a country that, he says, is losing its traditional love of philosophy. But Mr Le Collen and his team of 50 organisers are also planning to reach out across Europe, with similar events in the Czech Republic in July and Italy in September (2007).

Mr Le Collen said he was inspired by a philosophical festival in Modena, Italy.

“A big and captivated audience was listening to philosophers,” he said. “There were people sitting down, of course, but also outside youngsters leaning on their motorbike handlebars and the elderly on their bicycles.” Mr Le Collen is banking on a similar ambience in Saint-Émilion, which will play host to some of the finest brains in France at conferences, discussions and workshops around the theme of the five senses.

They include Jean-Luc Marion, Professor of Metaphysics at the Sorbonne in Paris, who will talk about love, and François Julien, director of the French Institute of Contemporary Thought, whose subject is “knowledge and flavour”.

The intellectuals have been promised a chance to sample the products of the sponsors of the two-day event – Bordeaux châteaux including Cheval Blanc and Pétrus.

“Wine is a philosophical drink,” said Mr Le Collen. “It helps people to think.” Local winemakers, including Joel Dupas, will be among the speakers because “they themselves have a philosophical intention”, according to Mr Le Collen.

“An excellent wine is in harmony with the sensorial aim of this festival,” said Mr Dupas, who gave up a career as a philosophy professor to run Châ-teau Bechereau in Bordeaux.

“I am looking forward to philosophising in the open air, like Socrates. I will be talking about wine and terroir [soil] because in France wines are rooted in a place and a culture.

“The terroir is not, in fact, just the soil but the way men work on it – culture and the transmission of knowledge. These wines are the opposite of globalisation, which is a neutral space in which you can produce anything anywhere. I expect globalisation and terroirto be the subject of the debate that will follow.”

The festival is the latest in a series of attempts in France to take philosophy out of academia and into the street. Les cafés philo (philosophy cafes), which stage open discussions with intellectuals, have proved very popular.

Mr Le Collen said: “I have a secret hope that this festival will bring about a renewal of thought and particularly a transmission of thought to the young.”

RARE BOUQUETS

Bruce's Philosophers Song: John Stuart Mill, of his own free will, after half a pint of shandy was particularly ill. Plato, they say, could stick it away, ‘alf a crate of whiskey every day! Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle, and Hobbes was fond of his Dram. And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart: “I drink, therefore I am.”

Monty Python: “Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.”

Thomas Aquinas: “No thing more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God.”

Plato: When asked what wine he liked, Diogenes replied: “That which belongs to another.”

Sources: Bartleby.com, theworldwidewine.com

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