Method
Socratic method
Overview
The Socratic method is a form of argumentative dialogue in which an individual probes a conversation partner on a topic, using questions and clarifications, until the partner is pressed to come to a conclusion on their own, or else their reasoning breaks down and they are forced to admit ignorance. The method is also known as Socratic debate, the maieutic method, or the Socratic dialectic, and sometimes equated with the Greek term elenchus. Socratic dialogues between characters employing this method feature in many of the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, where a fictionalized version of his real-life teacher Socrates debates or expounds upon various philosophical issues with a partner.
In Plato's dialogue Theaetetus, Socrates describes his method as a form of "midwifery" (maieutikós; source of the English adjective maieutic) because it is employed to help his interlocutors develop their understanding and lead it out of them in a way analogous to a child developing in the womb until it is ready for birth. The Socratic method begins with commonly held beliefs and scrutinizes them by way of questioning to determine their internal consistency and their coherence with other beliefs and so to bring everyone closer to the truth.
In modified forms, it is employed today in a variety of pedagogical contexts.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Socratic method is discussed.
1. _The Socratic Method._ In this conversation Socrates’ philosophy is found, as also what is known as the Socratic method, which must in its nature be dialectic, and of which we must speak before dealing with the content. Socrates’ manner is not artificial; the dialogues of the moderns, on the contrary, just because no internal reason justifies their form, are necessarily tedious and heavy. But the principle of his…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
names the idea; opens on it
And since Aristotle began to reason while walking hither and thither, they were called, he, I say, and his companions, Peripatetics, which means the same as walkers about. And since the perfection of this Morality by Aristotle was attained, the name of Academician became extinct, and all those who attached themselves to this sect are called Peripatetics, and these people hold the doctrine of the government of the…
Dante Alighieri, The Banquet
states what it is; names the idea
THEAETETUS: How is that, and what profession do you mean? SOCRATES: The profession of the great wise ones who are called orators and lawyers; for these persuade men by their art and make them think whatever they like, but they do not teach them. Do you imagine that there are any teachers in the world so clever as to be able to convince others of the truth about acts of robbery or violence, of which they were not…
Plato, Theaetetus
states what it is; author linked in the graph
THEAETETUS: Give me the knowledge which you would wish me to gain. STRANGER: Are not thought and speech the same, with this exception, that what is called thought is the unuttered conversation of the soul with herself? THEAETETUS: Quite true. STRANGER: But the stream of thought which flows through the lips and is audible is called speech? THEAETETUS: True. STRANGER: And we know that there exists in speech…
Plato, Sophist
states what it is; author linked in the graph
The school disputations of the middle ages had a somewhat similar object. They were intended to make sure that the pupil understood his own opinion, and (by necessary correlation) the opinion opposed to it, and could enforce the grounds of the one and confute those of the other.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Philosophers who discussed Socratic method
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Boethius
- Plato
- Socrates
- Michel Weber
- Michael Sandel
- Robert Maynard Hutchins
- Moishe Postone
- Leonard Nelson
- The unexamined life is not worth living
- Robert S. Summers
- Kieran Egan (philosopher)
Related ideas
- Socratic dialogue
- Socratic questioning
- Gregory Vlastos
- Argument
- Philosophy
- Justice
- Dialogue
- Ion (dialogue)
- Plato
- Parmenides
- Protagoras
- Paradox
- Rhetoric
- Socrates
- Theory of forms
- Michel Weber
- Experience
- Pedagogy
- Euthyphro
- Temperance (virtue)
- Wisdom
- Sophist
- Piety
- Courage
Place in the tradition
Part of Ancient Greek philosophy.