Philosophy is coming out of the campus and on to the streets and the question of how we should lead our lives is becoming a hot topic , writes Nadine O'Regan

In Orlando, they call themselves the Merry Philosophers. In Melbourne, they are the Socratic Diners. In London, the gathering is too new to have a name.

But like the others, they have a manifesto. They want to discuss philosophical issues in an informal style and use what they have learned to help them lead good lives.

Forget book clubs, the buzz event these days is the philosophy club. In countries around the world, philosophy fans are banding together.

Some are academics, but many, perhaps even most, are not. They are simply people who find it fulfilling to debate the larger questions in life, and to investigate areas like moral philosophy, existentialism and phenomenology that were hitherto the preserve of professional philosophers, lecturers and students.

In Irish bookshops, shelves are heaving under the weight of freshly-penned, commercially orientated philosophical texts. Once the philosophy section was all about the likes of Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Nietzsche. Now the work that flies from the shelves is Alain de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy, an accessible, philosophy-as-self-help-style tome that has sold more than 250,000 copies in its UK-edition alone.

Quirkier texts also abound. Feeling an urge to pontificate on Tony Soprano's deeper motivations? Why not read The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am? Think Bart Simpson and Nietzsche have something in common? Why not peruse a copy of The Simpsons and Philosophy?

There is a long history of literary novelists, from Jean-Paul Sartre through to Albert Camus and JM Coetzee, incorporating philosophical matters into their work.

But commercial authors, perhaps thinking of their profit margins, have traditionally demurred.

Not anymore, though. Alexander McCall Smith, author of the six-million-plus-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, has recently published a novel that features a Scottish female philosopher as its heroine. His new work can be viewed as a reflection of the increased fascination with philosophy.

"People are interested in the issue of how we should lead our lives," McCall Smith says. "They are interested in philosophical discussion and in seeing how moral theory has implications for their day-to-day lives."

But why are they so interested? McCall Smith has speculated that they are looking for answers in an increasingly insecure world. Many have lost their faith in religion or spirituality. But they still want to lead good lives. And they hope that an engagement with philosophical issues will help them to achieve this.

Even if it doesn't, as a self-improvement strategy, philosophy is hard to beat, sharpening reasoning skills and forcing its fans to abandon emotion in favour of logic.

The only problem appears to be with the books that are being studied. Take it from a former philosophy student, in college the only thing philosophy texts had in common was that they were all hard to read.

But in the real world, few can afford to spend hours puzzling over a page - and the publishing industry has adapted accordingly. Now sentences are short, subordinate clauses almost non-existent and sentiments frequently trite and simplistic.

Prof Des Clarke, head of the UCC philosophy department, believes that contemporary authors may be doing their audience no favours.

"People who don't appreciate the complexity of the problems are in danger of giving people bad advice," Prof Clarke says. "When I go into a bookshop, I see a wide range of books giving you advice on how to live your life.

"Maybe they give very good advice based on practical experience. But if they're trying to answer the kind of questions that philosophers try to cope with - namely, what kind of life is a meaningful life? - I'd be very dubious that so many people are so wise."

Fortunately, buried amid the self-help dross, are many authors and teachers whose work deserves recognition. Newcomers to philosophers and their work would be well advised to pick up a copy of What Philosophers Think, a collection of interviews with leading philosophers, edited by Julian Baggini and Jeremy Stangroom. Philosophy Made Simple by Richard H Popkin and Avrum Stroll is another useful work for philosophy fans in search of historical context and a succinct breakdown of the theories of important philosophers.

AC Grayling, Simon Blackburn, Terry Eagleton and the aforementioned Alain de Botton have also created works that manage to be commercial and intelligently written. Reviewing The Consolations of Philosophy, John Banville was moved to comment that philosophy is the new rock'n'roll and de Botton its Colonel Tom Parker.

While this is something of a stretch - I haven't seen many philosophers quaffing champagne in limos and wearing leather trousers of late - philosophy is certainly heading out of the universities and into the pubs, dinner parties and bookshop soirees.

Socrates once commented that the unexamined life was not worth living. It looks like an ever-increasing flock of philosophy fans agree with him.