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‘The Socratic Method’ Review: Let Us Reason Together
- johnaspden 4y agopaywall
- blinkingled 4y agohttps://archive.ph/xSbSG https://archive.ph/xSbSG
- nickjj 4y agoOn a related note, I've been a big fan of Socratic questioning[0] and have often used it to guide picking between 2 different things, such as technologies. It's also a really nice way to understand something in a consistent way, even if you're not comparing it to something else. I once wrote a blog post on how to use Socratic questioning to learn more about Docker at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/would-socrates-use-docker-today https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/would-socrates-use-docker-tod.... [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning
- sys_64738 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paper_Chase_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paper_Chase_(film)
- cafard 4y agoDidn't see the movie: as represented in a book that came out at about the same time (Harvard 1L?), the law school version of the Socratic method didn't sound all that Socratic.
- stefantalpalaru 4y ago
- mannykannot 4y agoTaking Socrates as a model of public discourse would not be complete without noting that it got him condemned to death. The asking of questions is often regarded as hostile by those whose worldview or self-interest is threatened by the reasonable responses those questions may elicit.
- marginalia_nu 4y agoIt's fundamentally embarrassing to be caught with your pants down not knowing the sort of basic things the line of questioning inevitably leads to. Most of us are intellectually sloppy. Few of us will admit to that. You'll find an army of people willing to defend say human rights, but very few of them could convince Socrates why. It's not that it's an indefensible position, of course it is, it's just that nobody really seems willing to shine light at central ideals like that. It's something that's so often taken for granted that very few actually bother to learn to motivate it, so when questioned, they flounder and fear maybe it can't be motivated, and react with aggression and threats instead of curiosity. In the end, the Socratic method is a harsh and bitter medicine that not everyone wants to swallow. Everyone likes to call themselves a skeptic when it comes to the thinking of others, but few wants their own assumptions scrutinized. I think walking around like Socrates accosting people with it probably will get you in trouble now as it did then.
- andi999 4y agoWell, any position becomes indefensible when the socratic method is applied to it. So it doesnt seem too useful.
- StanislavPetrov 4y agoThat isn't at all true. Only logically inconsistent positions are indefensible when applying the Socratic method.
- staticman2 4y agoIn real life there is no judge who decides what position is defensible or indefensible using the socratic method. Someone accomplished in rheteric can pretty much argue anything in a logical manner.
- amp108 4y agoThe only place the Socratic Method works is in the fictional dialogues of Plato, where Crito or Meno or Phaedrus or whomever are set up as obvious straw men, answering "yes" or "no" as Plato chooses, to questions most modern readers (and probably more than a few of his contemporaries) would answer differently.
- mike741 4y agoisn't it commonly used in court by lawyers and police investigations?