If philosophy, as Shakespeare said, is adversity's sweet milk, then these should be good times for deep thought and big ideas.

An unidentified woman touches the toe on the bronze statue of Scottish philosopher David Hume in Edinburgh in 2007. An arch-rationalist, Hume detested superstition, but students at Edinburgh University have begun touching his statue as a lucky charm. (Martin Cleaver/Associated Press)

The world is going to hell in a hand basket, isn't it? Right round the clock.

From that observation it is not far to the notion that brought together more than 8,000 people recently for a 24-hour — oh, so Québécois — philosophy extravaganza at a Montreal university.

All day all night, there was something for everyone: anarchists, Hegelians, eco-feminists, positivists and Zoroastrians.

They thought therefore they were.

Saturday, 10 a.m.

The atrium at the University of Quebec in Montral is already packed as the Nuit de la philosophie gets underway

No one seems to mind that in the atrium it's as dim and airless as Plato's famous cave.

Teams of local college students — who most Saturdays would still be sleeping in — are already at battle, facing off in a philosophical Reach for the Top.

What 18th century French philosopher wrote about man's "state of nature? Asks the judge. Jean-Jacques Rousseau shouts out a woman in dreadlocks.

Name a Socratic paradox: "No one desires evil," says a fellow in a toque.

The game continues amidst the conundrum what is winning? Or, indeed, what is losing? And what does it all mean?

This renewed interest in philosophy is not just a Quebec phenomenon. Across North America more and more students are taking philosophy courses.

In Ontario, high school teachers met recently to talk about how to bring philosophy down to earth for knowledge-hungry students. And books by philosophers like Roger-Pol Droit, Peter Singer, Susan Neiman and Canadian Mark Kingwell are reaching a wide public.

Plato's cave? It's actually the one where historians believe Socrates was imprisoned before he killed himself by drinking a cup of hemlock in 399 BCE. The man in the photo is the former president of India, Abdul Kalam.

But here in the atrium, philosophy isn't just something you think about at your leisure. It is something you almost trip over.

Flying circus

Female actors wander about trying to shake visitors out of their intellectual comfort zones.

Catherine makes her living as trapeze artist at circus-theme birthday parties. But during this philosophy conference she's spending the day stretched out on a bed. "I am almost nude. I am wearing a G-string and a bra and I'm pretty comfortable with that actually," she says.

"I am the prostitute and I am in my room now. And I am just reading books and waiting for the next client that is what I am doing. I am trying to show that I can be a really nice person, smiley, interested in philosophy and books and, you know, so smart that she is in a man's world and can turn it to her advantage.

"Obviously, in philosophy we question the place of women in our world and that is what we are doing now. We're showing the space we give to women. We want to make people uncomfortable, obviously. Because when you don't get uncomfortable you don't question yourself."

What is waste?

Just off to the side of Catherine's bed, a middle-aged woman with a shaved head fiddles with a video camera.

Another actress playing a role? Nope. Dr. Shannon Bell teaches philosophy at York University in Toronto.

"It is like philosophy has made a comeback as a cool discipline, finally," she says. "Or maybe as a sick discipline finally."

In any event, she is part of a panel on globalization and she is talking about the current economic crisis by looking at it through the lens of a couple of French philosophers.

"I am using Georges Bataille and his idea of waste," Bell says. "And I am also using Paul Verillio, which is using it as a political economy of speed.

"Perhaps," she muses, "philosophy is more pertinent than it has ever been. But it is certainly more fun."

4 p.m.

In a windowless classroom, little girls in a row swing their fists and kick their feet against an onslaught of invisible enemies.

More and more, it seems, seven-, eight- and nine-year-old elementary students in Quebec are taking philosophy in school.

Louise Carolyn Bergeron is leading today's session

"I taught them a few kung fu moves that I made up myself. What I am trying to do is teach them to identify the lies.

"If we go back to the earliest Greeks, theatre and critical thought are things that go together. All these are conditions to democracy."

10 p.m.

Twelve hours to go. Crowds of people wander from session to session, carrying steaming mugs of coffee, half-eaten sandwiches and crumpled programs as they wander down the hallways that snake away from the atrium, endlessly hunting down more intellectual nourishment.

Poster for Nuit de la philosophie, a real all-nighter. (From the University of Quebec in Montreal)

Discussions about Nietzsche and Derrida and Foucault fill the air. (Or was that post-Derrida? And neo-Foucault?)

There's a session on Protagoras, an early partner in the Socratic dialogue, and another on government. There are also sessions on Prudhon (from reformism to utopia), Freud and the social spheres, and a debate about the definitions of democracy.

Rounding out the fare are introductions to Wittgenstein, humanism, Tao and logic as well as book launches, films, plays and a slam poetry session called slamosophy

Then there's Guy Lapierre on the piano, holding forth on philosophy and music: "Nietzsche says we all have music inside us even if it cannot be heard. That music teaches us to listen to ourselves and to help make sense of the world around us."

Milvelle Menard is 24, an actress who has come to read from the play her company will stage later this spring.

"In Quebec now people are feeling a bit uneasy about almost everything, about the social order, about the political order, so there is kind of a need to express that uneasy feeling that has no name and we are tying to kind of put a definition on that."

Midnight

The sandwich machines are all empty. There are no more chips. Or cheesies.

A fellow is asleep in a bathroom, using his backpack as a pillow. The philosophy program covers his eyes, keeping out the light.

In the depths of the atrium a drowsy Dr. George Ghanotakis sits in his crumpled suit, minding a table piled high with children's books he's written.

"In Out of the Cave, they meet Plato who guides them out of the cave, out of the platonic cave that represents our world or sensation and opinion into the light, into the vision of the good.

"There is a movement across the world to teach philosophy in the schools," he says. "It is back to Socrates in the marketplace you know, if you want, except now Socrates is officially part of the marketplace"

The value of free

Sunday, 1:30 a.m.

In 1633, Pope Urban the 8th found Galileo guilty of heresy for saying that the Earth revolves around the sun.

Here in Montreal in 2009, 50 people sit cheek by jowl in the middle of the night to watch a movie about the trial, and cheer Galileo on.

Michel Virard is president of the Quebec Humanist Association

No musty science. McGill philosopher Charles Taylor, left, and sociologist Gerard Bouchard speak to the press in May 2008 after releasing their report on the accommodation of minorities in Quebec. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

"You see people here from all walks of life. Young and old. I think many people are saying, 'Hey, wait a minute, where are we going?'

"They are frightened. And when you start to ask these kinds of questions, sooner or later you will land in philosophy land. If they see what is happening they will say 'wait a minute is there another way?' For a lot of people now, religion is discredited."

Maude is 19. She lives in Sherbrooke in Quebec's Eastern Townships and hitch-hiked to Montreal to spend the day — and night — surrounded by people talking philosophy. "In Quebec we want things to change so we want to see how to make it happen.

"Everything has a value and just going out and having fun is just one of the things that we can do but we're open to learning and open to other people's ideas. No one gets mad if we do not agree.

"If this was 50 bucks I wouldn't have come but it is free so it is great."

6:53 a.m.

Sunrise.

The Schiller lecture just ended. Nietzsche is next. What a way to start the day.

Marie-Helene Labelle is curled up on the floor but her eyes are open wide.

She rolls over and claps as the speaker takes a bow.

"Philosophy is a passion. Some people are moved by sports or by cars. Me, it is philosophy.

"I took a lot of notes and of course I will probably forget half of it. But it is just about the fun of thinking so you don't have to have a goal, you don't have to be specific at the end of the night. But if you just have fun thinking and talking with people and learning new things that's plenty already. So even if I don't remember I don't mind."

10 a.m. and good night A hundred worn-looking souls stand in the middle of the atruim as an organizer declares the night of philosophy officially over.

Books are packed away in boxes, security guards rip down the posters. Overflowing garbage bags are hauled away.

A young Tibetan monk looks on while others debate Buddhist philosophy at the Nanwu temple in Kangding, China, in April 2008. (Associated Press)

Eight thousand people have come and passed through this event.

Over there is Etienne, alone

He was standing here 24 hours ago, fresh faced and talkative, surrounded by a group of laughing friends as they watched the quiz show, the very first session on Saturday morning.

Now Etienne's face is covered in stubble and he has a coffee stain on his T-shirt.

He nods to another participant, both of them survivors of the stale air and the endless talk. He slowly zips up his coat and knots his scarf.

Just like Plato said, there comes a time when humans have to leave the cave.

"At 5 a.m. this morning I was in the middle of a reading," he says. "It was the only activity where I actually fell asleep.

"It was really interesting but at some point I woke up and I realized that, well, if I woke up it meant I fell asleep.

"It all blends and you are not sure what is within consciousness and what's not. At some point, your mind is ummmmmmm. it is fluctuating and it …your not sure what time it is, you are not sure where you are exactly, because all the corridors look the same.

"It was a great experience but now I can't take it anymore so I will take the Metro home. And I go to bed."