In this session Mohammad Larijani will talk about WTO (World Trade Organization), its origin, development and structure. Then he will explain some key concepts in international economy and trade along with WTO approach towards them. At the end he will discuss Iran's accession request and process to WTO and will talk about effects, advantages and disadvantages of Iran's accession to WTO.... more >>

Why languages die and what can accelerate or decelerate this? This talk will be a brief overview of Claude Hagege's book titled "On the death and life of Languages". Hagege is a renowned French linguist currently the chair of Linguistic Theory at the College de France in Paris. In his book he reviews the most important factors that play a role in extinction of languages all over the world, the measure that can be taken to stop this seemingly inevitable catastrophe threatening almost 90% of currently alive languages and finally the resurrection of languages. As an example of successful resurrection, Hebrew and its life, death and revival will be discussed.... more >>

The "dangerous idea" of Charles Darwin, Evolution, has intensely influenced not only the biological fields but also most of our perceptions of the world. The word culture is a controversial concept It has various definitions depending on the context. Culture is used as synonym to art, literature, history, religion, society, ... individually or or all together. The evolutionary point of view to culture, tries to explain the origins, development and characteristic of cultures as well as the commencement of the social behavior in homo-sapiens. This session will be a brain-storming on some of the hypotheses that attempt to explain the reasons that the human being, in contrary to its instincts, start to make limitations that result in build up a... more >>

The scientific definition of climate includes a very complex interaction between several dynamic systems that leads to a very delicate balance. Antropogenic, or human induced, climate change is a critical issue in science and in the affairs of humankind. The political heat of the debate has masked the scientific aspect of it from the public. Though the target of substantial research, the conclusions of climate change studies remain subject to numerous uncertainties. In this talk we present a very brief review of the basic arguments regarding anthropogenic climate change with particular emphasis on scientific uncertainty.Majid is a third year PhD student of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at McGill university.... more >>

Relieved from the non-secular metaphysics, the modern Man is struggling with a new kind of metaphysics which we may call it "metaphysics in the sense of Heidegger" or "secular metaphysics". In contrast to natural sciences in which the Man gave up the idea of being at the center of the universe, and got benefited from this incredibly, when it comes to "knowledge", he still implicitly assume a central role for himself. He assumes he has the responsibility, and morally obligated to discover underneath "truth" about the nature which later would serve him as an indicator that would direct him along the future that he is destined for. He also unconsciously assumes that nature is also responsible for him somehow.... more >>

CaféLitt is not a place; it is a gathering of minds. We are a group of mostly Persian young students, scholars and professionals who gather every Thursday evening around 19h00 in a café to discuss various subjects and share different ideas, ranging vastly from history to science, from literature to fine arts. We started these gatherings on Jan 18th, 2007. Each week, one of us takes the responsibility of presenting a topic (in Persian, English or French) for about an hour in a subject s/he is intimately familiar with or has an expertise in. Afterwards, the evening turns into a discussion forum and all members of the audience will have an opportunity to ask their question(s) and share their points of view.
CaféLitt is open to all comments, suggestion, collaboration and new ideas. CaféLitt provides an unparalleled opportunity for learning about culture, science and philosophy in a relaxed and friendly environment, and for sharing your knowledge and expertise with like-minded members of your community.
CaféLitt is officially registered as a non-profitable group and is a nonpartisan, nonreligious and nonpolitical entity.