What exactly is the Socratic method?
In: Other
The Socratic method is a way of teaching and exploring complex ideas by asking a series of questions. It was named after the Greek philosopher Socrates, who used this method to help people think more deeply about their beliefs and to uncover contradictions in their thoughts.
Imagine you have a box of crayons and you say that all the crayons in the box are red. If I use the Socratic method, I might ask you questions like:
“Are all crayons in the world red?”
“Can there be crayons of other colors in a box?”
“If we find a blue crayon in the box, would that mean not all crayons in the box are red?”
By answering these questions, you might realize that saying “all the crayons in the box are red” might not be true if there’s a chance of finding a crayon of a different color. This method helps you examine your initial statement and refine it to be more accurate.
It’s simply a kind of ask/answer debate format. But it’s not meant to be argumentative, it’s meant to be positive or learning. In the positive light of a Socratic debate we would never answer a question with “No” but then we would also never pose a question using duplicitous language prompting such an argument. I guess to put it simply, the Socratic method is a conversation that tries to answer a question in an intellectual manner rather than argumentative or contradictory manner.
Teachers and students seek truth together through discovery. A good Socratic discussion looks like a real discussion and is primarily based on an excellent, thoughtful progressive series of questions. A bad Socratic seminar looks like “guess what’s in the teacher’s head.”
It’s a series of leading questions that helps the person answering to discover or learn a concept.
It comes from Plato’s writings, and I think the best example is from Meno, where Socrates asks a series of questions to a child in order to prove that knowledge is innate – the subject in that particular dialogue is about mathematics, which the child knows little about.
A lot of people tend to refer to the Socratic method as a way professors call on students in law school to answer questions about a case in class , but it’s a horrible misnomer, because the student in this case already knows all there is to know about it by having prepared in advance.
The Socratic method is really about the questioner’s ability to draw out the information from an uninformed subject using only questions.
What do youuuuu think the Socratic Method is?
You will undoubtedly get plenty of responses but I highly recommend reading The Trial and Death of Socrates. It demonstrates the Socratic Method very well.
What do you think it is?
If anyone can explain it using the Socratic method I’ll be really impressed, as will Xzibit.
What do you think it is?
Latest Answers