Article 94: Coffee shops promote the development of society
With their connection characteristics, coffee shops have become an ideal space for creativity and knowledge transmission, contributing to promoting cultural and social development.
“The mindset of the people who came to the coffee shop was completely superior to the rest.” – Playwright Georges Courteline (1858-1929)
Space of modern aspirations
The Enlightenment movement in Europe flourished in the 18th century with many initiatives being born, creating a brilliant development of Western civilization, bringing the whole continent to the top of the world.
Many new innovations were invented in the 17th century, enabling important discoveries of mankind, such as: the telescope completed by Galileo in 1609, opening up a whole new way of looking at the universe and studying the space; William Harvey – the first person to accurately and completely draw a blood circulation chart, opening the way for modern medicine; Robert Boyle practiced on the behavior of gases at different temperatures and under different pressures, becoming the father of modern chemistry; Isaac Newton had many inventions such as differential calculus, integral calculus, laws of motion… laid the foundation for advanced mathematics and physics…
At the same time, the fields of philosophy, technology, economics… also flourished in the Enlightenment era, considered by many modern thinkers and philosophers as a universal solution for social development in all times. The current economic, cultural, educational, and political institutions of dozens of developed countries today from East to West are inseparable from the mainstream of the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment movement turned coffee shops into a place to awaken strong wills, motivating people to participate in building a free and creative Western culture.
Along with the formation and development of the Enlightenment movement, from the 17th century, coffee and coffee shops were introduced to Europe and played an important role as an ideal socializing environment. It is here that intellectuals originate ideas, transform thinking and spread ideas and initiatives, spread knowledge, and promote the strong development of the Enlightenment movement, especially in civilized countries that have typical coffee enjoyment cultures like France, Italy, England, Germany…
As a space where anyone, regardless of class, can meet to share personal views, discuss new creations and gain knowledge, coffee shops have become highly socialized spaces. Here, with many forms of activities, movements initiated by intellectuals and the response of all classes and subjects in the society with the same aspirations and wills, have contributed to building a flourished Western culture during this period.
Coffee and coffee shops are places for Europeans to help each other develop themselves and make valuable contributions to social transformation.
Space for creativity and knowledge transmission
Movements, schools of thought, art, literature, philosophy, scientific associations and academies… were shaped in the 17th century and exploded strongly in the 18th to 20th centuries, creating typical culture of Western civilization. The discussions, lectures and public experiments of scholars at the cafe created a new force of scientists, thinkers, philosophers, writers, and artists. At the same time, together with books, magazines, news on scientific discoveries, philosophical ideas are placed in the cafe space, propaganda activities, exhibitions and debates of the intellectuals are held here to help spread and disseminate academic knowledge to the masses. Individuals in the community easily receive and use knowledge to continue to be creative in all fields, develop themselves and contribute value to the construction of the society.
In England, in the 17th century, great scientists Isaac Newton, William Whiston, Francis Hauksbee… chose cafes to carry out scientific experiments. The Oxford Coffee Club, the predecessor of the British Academy of Sciences, was founded at Tillyard’s Café in 1655. In the 18th century, in France, Café Procope, Café De la Régence were favorite gathering places for debates of elites and enlightened founders Voltaire, Rousseau, Napoleon Bonaparte, Benjamin Franklin, Karl Marx…, creating works and ideas that affect the transformation of social consciousness, laying the foundation for the French Enlightenment movement.
Meanwhile, in Italy, the cafe space is built as an architectural wonder, displaying works of literature, painting, and sculpture of the eras, in order to recreate and convey the aura of civilizations for centuries. Antico Caffè Greco is considered the largest private art exhibition space with more than 300 classic and modern paintings. The Caffè Museo Atelier Canova Tadolini is a museum with a sculpture collection that embodies the centuries-old memory of Venice. At the end of the 18th century, in Vienna, the type of concert cafe, with typical shops such as Café Jüngling, Zweites Kaffeehaus, Erstes Kaffeehaus… contributed to making Vienna famous as the capital of European classical music.
The space of the coffee shop has cultural symbolic value, influencing the formation of aesthetic thinking and social art trends.
By the 20th century, coffee shops in France and Vienna were considered the residence of the intelligentsia. Cafes in Montmartre, France are the convergence and exhibition of paintings by famous artists such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Toulouse Lautrec, Modigliani, Pisarro… turning theses places into a famous cradle of Western European painting in the early twentieth century. Even the cafes in Montmartre attract poets, becoming “operational headquarters” of groups of writers and poets. In Vienna, Café Herrenhof is also a familiar place for writers Hermann Broch, Otto Soyka, Alfred Polgar… Especially, Café Central is not only a place of work but also a place to deliver and consign letters, personal items of writer Peter Altenberg.
During this same period, the inspiration and ideas shared in coffee shops became the catalyst for the formation and nurturing of key philosophical schools with great influence, such as: Positivism logic, philosophy of language and existentialism… Especially, philosophical coffee (Café philosophique or Café-philo), founded by philosopher Marc Sautet at the end of the 20th century in France, is also popular around the world, bringing philosophy down the road to help people understand clearly on the way to find the meaning of life. The wave of creative freedom continued to explode in all fields from literature and painting to music and film, promoting the birth of a series of movements, such as Modernism, Surrealism, Futurism, Art Deco, Cubism…
Trung Nguyen Legend space “became important social centers” (according to the Financial Times), the meeting place of the knowledge-loving community.
From the love of coffee, with in-depth studies on the value of coffee, the culture of coffee enjoyment in human history, Trung Nguyen Legend has built a chain of special coffee spaces according to the positioning as “The meeting place of great souls”. Accordingly, Trung Nguyen Legend Coffee World, Trung Nguyen Legend Café, Trung Nguyen E-Coffee are shaped to develop into a creative space, a cultural space, a rendezvous point for the knowledge-loving community to meet and share in many fields of culture, economy, science, art…. Here, with the inspirational and successful sayings of great celebrities, coffee lovers can gain comprehensive knowledge power, drawn from precious books from the Life-Changing Foundational Bookcase, carefully selected by the Founder – Chairman of Trung Nguyen Legend Group Dang Le Nguyen Vu from millions of books and thousands of successful examples of mankind’s great and successful people, helping to change minds and forge aspirations, to achieve success and true happiness, contributing to building a new lifestyle, Coffee Lifestyle – Success Lifestyle – Mindfulness Lifestyle for the community.
Readers are cordially invited to watch the series of Coffee Tao videos posted on https://bit.ly/caphetrietdao
THE REAL COFFEE
ROASTED ONLY FOR PEOPLE OF WISDOM!
Source: “The Philosophical Way of Coffee” – copyright by Trung Nguyen Legend
Coming up: Dorothy Day – For a better society through love and compassion