Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic method of inquiry, also called the elenchos, as well as elenchus, or elench, was introduced by Socrates in order to discover the truth. It was first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues.
The Socratic method is a negative method of truth-seeking, in that truth is found by steadily identifying and eliminating that which is not true. The method of Socrates is a search for the underlying assumptions, or axioms, which may unconsciously shape one's opinion, and to make them the subject of scrutiny, to determine their truth or falsity. The basic form is a series of questions formulated as tests of logic and fact intended to help a person or group discover the truth about some topic. A skillful teacher can actually teach students to think for themselves using this method. This is the only classic method of teaching that is known to create genuinely autonomous thinkers.
There are some crucial principles to this form of teaching:
- The teacher must set the topic of instruction, and the student must agree to this.
- The student must agree to attempt to answer questions from the teacher.
- The teacher must be willing to accept any correctly-reasoned answer. That is, the reasoning process must be considered more important than facts.
- The teacher's questions must expose errors in the students' reasoning. That is, the teacher must reason more quickly and correctly than the student, and discover errors in the students' reasoning, and then formulate a question which the students cannot answer except by a correct reasoning process. To perform this service, the teacher must be very quick-thinking about the classic errors in reasoning.
- If the teacher makes an error of logic or fact, it is acceptable for a student to correct the teacher.
It is helpful if the teacher is able to lead a group of students in a discussion. This is not always possible in situations that require the teacher to evaluate students, but it is preferable pedagogically, because it encourages the students to reason for truth rather than from authority.
More loosely, one can label any process of thorough-going questioning as an instance of the Socratic method.
The Socratic Dialogues
The Socratic Dialogues are a series of dialogues written by Plato in the form of discussions between Socrates and other figures of the time. The ideas that Plato communicates are not placed in the mouth of any specific character, but emerge via the Socratic method, under the guidance of Socrates.
The reference, or pagination system, used in these dialogues is known as the Stephanus pagination.
Quotations
Really, Ischomachus, I am disposed to ask: "Does teaching consist in putting questions?" Indeed, the secret of your system has just this instant dawned upon me. I seem to see the principle in which you put your questions. You lead me through the field of my own knowledge, and then by pointing out analogies to what I know, persuade me that I really know some things which hitherto, as I believed, I had no knowledge of.
- Socrates (quoted in Oeconomicus by Xenophon, tr. The Economist by H.G. Dakyns)
See also
