Citizendia
Your Ad Here

Elenchus redirects here. For the brachiopod genus, see Elenchus (brachiopod). Brachiopods (from Latin brachium, arm + New Latin -poda, foot are a small phylum of Benthic Invertebrates Also A genus (plural genera from Γένος Latin genus "descent family type gender" is a low-level Taxonomic Elenchus is an extinct genus of Brachiopod, a Phylum of Benthic Invertebrates.
Part of a series on
Platonism
Platonic idealism
Platonic realism
Middle Platonism
Neoplatonism
Articles on Neoplatonism
Platonic epistemology
Socratic method
Socratic dialogue
Theory of forms
Platonic doctrine of recollection
Form of the Good
Participants in Dialogues
Socrates
Alcibiades
Protagoras
Parmenides
Notable Platonists
Plato
Plotinus
Iamblichus
Proclus
Discussions of Plato's works
Dialogues of Plato
Metaphor of the sun
Analogy of the divided line
Allegory of the cave
Chariot allegory
Third Man Argument
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
This box: view • talk • edit

Socratic Method (or Method of Elenchus or Socratic Debate) is a dialectic method of inquiry, largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts and first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. Platonism is the Philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it The phrase Platonic idealism usually refers to Plato's theory of forms or doctrine of ideas the exact philosophical meaning of which is perhaps one of the most disputed questions Platonic realism is a philosophical term usually used to refer to the idea of realism regarding the existence of universals after the Greek Middle Platonism was the development of certain philosophical doctrines associated with Plato from approximately 130 B Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical Philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD founded by Platonic Epistemology holds that knowledge is innate so that learning is the development of ideas buried deep in the soul often under the mid-wife-like guidance of Socratic dialogue ( Greek Σωκρατικός λόγος or Σωκρατικός διάλογος) is a genre of prose literary works developed in Plato 's Theory of Forms asserts that Forms (or Ideas) and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess Platonic Epistemology holds that knowledge is innate so that learning is the development of ideas buried deep in the soul often under the mid-wife-like guidance of Plato describes "The Idea of the Good" in his Dialogue, The Republic, speaking through the character of Socrates. SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of Education. Alcibiades Cleiniou Scambonides (ˌælsɨˈbaɪədiːz (pronunciation Greek:, transliterated Alkibiádēs Kleiníou Skambōnidēs) meaning Alcibiades Protagoras ( Greek:) (ca 490&ndash 420 BC was a pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher and is numbered as one of the Sophists by Parmenides of Elea ( Greek:, early 5th century BC was an Ancient Greek Philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Plotinus ( Greek:) (ca AD 204–270 was a major philosopher of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism (along with his Proclus Lycaeus ( February 8, c 411 &ndash April 17, 485) called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" ( Greek Próklos Plato, in ''The Republic'' (507b-509c uses the sun as a Metaphor for the source of "illumination" arguably intellectual illumination which he held to Plato, in his dialogue The Republic Book 6 (509D–513E has Socrates explain the literary device of a divided line to teach basic philosophical The Allegory of the Cave is an Allegory used by the Greek Philosopher Plato in his work The Republic. Plato, in his dialogue Phaedrus (sections 246a - 254e uses the Chariot Allegory to explain his view of the human soul The Third Man Argument (commonly referred to as TMA) first offered by Plato in his dialogue Parmenides, is a Philosophical criticism of Plato's la ''Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?'' is a Latin phrase from the Roman poet Juvenal, variously translated as "Who watches the watchmen?" "Who watches In classical Philosophy, dialectic (διαλεκτική is controversy the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments respectively advocating Propositions Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Socratic dialogue ( Greek Σωκρατικός λόγος or Σωκρατικός διάλογος) is a genre of prose literary works developed in For this, Socrates is customarily regarded as the father of Western ethics or moral philosophy. SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of Education. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life

It is a form of philosophical inquiry. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language It typically involves two speakers at any one time, with one leading the discussion and the other agreeing to certain assumptions put forward for his acceptance or rejection. The method is credited to Socrates, who began to engage in such discussions with his fellow Athenians after Socrates' friend from youth, Chaerephon, visited the Oracle of Delphi. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's PYTHIA is a computer simulation program for particle collisions at very high energies (see Event (particle physics) in Particle accelerators The Oracle of Delphi confirmed Socrates to be the wisest man in Athens. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's Socrates interpreted this as a paradox, and began utilizing the Socratic method in order to get his conundrum answered. Diogenes Laertius, however, wrote that Protagoras invented the “Socratic” method. Diogenes Laërtius ( Greek:, Diogénes Laértios) the biographer of the Greek Philosophers, is supposed by some to have received his surname Protagoras ( Greek:) (ca 490&ndash 420 BC was a pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher and is numbered as one of the Sophists by [1][2]

The practice involves asking a series of questions surrounding a central issue, and answering questions of the others involved. Generally, this involves the defense of one point of view against another and is oppositional. The best way to 'win' is to make the opponent contradict themselves in some way that proves the inquirer's own point.

Plato famously formalized the Socratic Elenctic style in prose — presenting Socrates as the curious questioner of some prominent Athenian interlocutor — in some of his early dialogues, such as Euthyphro or Ion, and the method is most commonly found within the so-called "Socratic dialogues", which generally portray Socrates engaging in the method and questioning his fellow citizens about moral and epistemological issues. Euthyphro is one of Plato 's early dialogues dated to after 399 BCE. In Plato 's Ion ( Greek:) Socrates discusses with the title character the question of whether the Rhapsode, a professional performer Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge

The term Socratic Questioning is used to describe a kind of questioning in which an original question is responded to as though it were an answer. This in turn forces the first questioner to reformulate a new question in light of the progress of the discourse.

Contents

Method

Elenkhos (Greek: ἔλεγχος, a cross-examination for the purpose of refutation), more usually spelled 'elenchus',[3] is the central technique of the Socratic method.

"If you ask a question or series of questions in which your prospect can readily agree, then ask a concluding question based on those agreements, you will receive a desirable response".

In Plato's early dialogues, the elenchos is the technique Socrates uses to investigate, for example, the nature or definition of ethical concepts such as justice or virtue. According to one general characterization (Vlastos, 1983), it has the following steps:

  1. Socrates' interlocutor asserts a thesis, for example 'Courage is endurance of the soul', which Socrates considers false and targets for refutation.
  2. Socrates secures his interlocutor's agreement to further premises, for example 'Courage is a fine thing' and 'Ignorant endurance is not a fine thing'.
  3. Socrates then argues, and the interlocutor agrees, that these further premises imply the contrary of the original thesis, in this case it leads to: 'courage is not endurance of the soul'.
  4. Socrates then claims that he has shown that his interlocutor's thesis is false and that its contrary is true.

One elenctic examination can lead to a new, more refined, examination of the concept being considered, in this case it invites an examination of the claim: 'Courage is wise endurance of the soul'. Most Socratic inquiries consist of a series of elenchai and typically end in aporia.

Frede (1992) insists that step #4 above makes nonsense of the aporetic nature of the early dialogues. If any claim has shown to be true then it can not be the case that the interlocutors are in aporia, a state where they no longer know what to say about the subject under discussion.

The exact nature of the elenchos is subject to a great deal of debate, in particular concerning whether it is a positive method, leading to knowledge, or a negative method used solely to refute false claims to knowledge.

The Socratic method is a negative method of hypotheses elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those which lead to contradictions. The method of Socrates is a search for the underlying hypotheses, assumptions, or axioms, which may subconsciously shape one's opinion, and to make them the subject of scrutiny, to determine their consistency with other beliefs. In traditional Logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be either self-evident, or subject The basic form is a series of questions formulated as tests of logic and fact intended to help a person or group discover their beliefs about some topic, exploring the definitions or logoi (singular logos), seeking to characterize the general characteristics shared by various particular instances. A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for Information, or else the request itself made by such an expression Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a Proposition or Premise to be true grc-Latn Logos (ˈloʊːgɒs ( Greek, logos) is an important term in Philosophy, Analytical psychology, Rhetoric and Religion grc-Latn Logos (ˈloʊːgɒs ( Greek, logos) is an important term in Philosophy, Analytical psychology, Rhetoric and Religion To the extent to which this method is designed to bring out definitions implicit in the interlocutors' beliefs, or to help them further their understanding, it was called the method of maieutics. Maieutics is a complex procedure of Research introduced by Socrates, embracing the Socratic method in its widest sense Aristotle attributed to Socrates the discovery of the method of definition and induction, which he regarded as the essence of the scientific method. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Perhaps oddly, however, Aristotle also claimed that this method is not suitable for ethics. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life

Application

Socrates generally applied his method of examination to concepts that seem to lack any concrete definition; e. g. , the key moral concepts at the time, the virtues of piety, wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice. Virtue ( Latin virtus; Greek) is moral Excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting individual In spiritual terminology piety is a Virtue. While different people may understand its meaning differently it is generally used to refer either to religious devotion Wisdom is a concept of personal gaining of Knowledge, Understanding, Experience, discretion and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity Temperance ( Sophrosyne in Greek) is the practice of Moderation. Gallantry redirects here Or see Gallant for other meanings Courage, also known as bravery, will, intrepidity JUSTICE is a Human rights and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom. Such an examination challenged the implicit moral beliefs of the interlocutors, bringing out inadequacies and inconsistencies in their beliefs, and usually resulting in puzzlement known as aporia. In view of such inadequacies, Socrates himself professed his ignorance, but others still claimed to have knowledge. Socrates believed that his awareness of his ignorance made him wiser than those who, though ignorant, still claimed knowledge. Although this belief seems paradoxical at first glance, it in fact allowed Socrates to discover his own errors where others might assume they were correct. This claim was known by the anecdote of the Delphic oracular pronouncement that Socrates was the wisest of all men. (Or, rather, that no man was wiser than Socrates. )

Socrates used this claim of wisdom as the basis of his moral exhortation. Accordingly, he claimed that the chief goodness consists in the caring of the soul concerned with moral truth and moral understanding, that "wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state", and that "life without examination [dialogue] is not worth living". It is with this in mind that the Socratic Method is employed.

The motive for the modern usage of this method and Socrates' use are not necessarily equivalent. Socrates rarely used the method to actually develop consistent theories, instead using myth to explain them. The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" The Parmenides shows Parmenides using the Socratic method to point out the flaws in the Platonic theory of the Forms, as presented by Socrates; it is not the only dialogue in which theories normally expounded by Plato/Socrates are broken down through dialectic. Parmenides of Elea ( Greek:, early 5th century BC was an Ancient Greek Philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of Instead of arriving at answers, the method was used to break down the theories we hold, to go "beyond" the axioms and postulates we take for granted. Therefore, myth and the Socratic method are not meant by Plato to be incompatible; they have different purposes, and are often described as the "left hand" and "right hand" paths to the good and wisdom.

Law school

See also: Casebook method

The Socratic method is widely used in contemporary legal education by many law schools in the United States. The casebook method, also known as the case method, is the primary method of teaching Law in law schools in the United States. A law school (also known as a school of law or college of law) is an institution specializing in Legal education. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the In a typical class setting, the professor asks a question and calls on a student who may or may not have volunteered an answer. The professor either then continues to ask the student questions or moves on to another student.

The employment of the Socratic method has some uniform features but can also be heavily influenced by the temperament of the teacher. The method begins by calling on a student at random, and asking about a central argument put forth by one of the judges (typically on the side of the majority) in an assigned case. The first step is to ask the student to paraphrase the argument, in order to ensure that the student has read and has a basic understanding of the case. (Students who have not read the case, for whatever reason, must take the opportunity to "pass," which most professors allow as a matter of course a few times per term. ) Assuming the student has read the case and can articulate the court's argument, the teacher then asks whether the student agrees with the argument. The teacher then typically plays Devil's advocate, trying to force the student to defend his or her position by rebutting arguments against it. In common Parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who takes a position sometimes one he or she disagrees with for the sake of argument.

These subsequent questions can take a few forms. Sometimes they seek to challenge the assumptions upon which the student based the previous answer until it breaks. Further questions can also be designed to move a student toward greater specificity, either in understanding a rule of law or a particular case. The teacher may attempt to propose a hypothetical situation in which the student's assertion would seem to demand an exception. Finally professors use the Socratic method to allow students to come to legal principles on their own through carefully worded questions that spur a particular train of thought. The train of thought, stream of thought, or chain of thought refers to the interconnection in the sequence of ideas expressed during a connected Discourse

One hallmark of Socratic questioning is that typically there is more than one "correct" answer, and more often, no clear answer at all. The primary goal of the Socratic method in law schools is not to answer usually unanswerable questions, but to explore the contours of often difficult legal issues and to teach students the critical thinking skills they will need as lawyers. This is often done by altering the facts of a particular case to tease out how the result might be different. This method encourages students to go beyond memorizing the facts of a case and instead focus on application of legal rules to tangible fact patterns. As the assigned texts are typically case law, the Socratic method, if properly used, can display that judges' decisions are usually conscientiously made but are based on certain premises, belief, and conclusions that are the subject of legitimate argument.

Sometimes, the class ends with a quick discussion of doctrinal foundations (legal rules) to anchor the students in contemporary legal understanding of an issue. In other classes the class simply ends and students are forced to figure out for themselves the legal rules or principles that were at issue. For this method to work, the students are expected to be prepared for class in advance by reading the assigned materials (case opinions, notes, law review articles, etc. ) and by familiarizing themselves with the general outlines of the subject matter.

Psychotherapy

The Socratic method has been adapted for psychotherapy, most prominently in Classical Adlerian psychotherapy and Cognitive therapy. Classical Adlerian individual psychotherapy, brief therapy couple therapy and family therapy follow parallel paths Cognitive Therapy (CT is a type of Psychotherapy developed by American Psychiatrist Aaron T It can be used to clarify meaning, feeling, and consequences, as well as to gradually unfold insight, or explore alternative actions.

Theory of Constraints

A prominent author in the area of manufacturing improvement advocates the use of Socratic questioning in resolving apparent contradictory requirements of a process. Eliyahu M. Goldratt and his series of books[4][5] have a particular focus on how to use this method to avoid compromises that satisfy neither side in a situation of apparently contradictory needs. Eliyahu M Goldratt (1948 -) is an Israeli physicist turned business consultant This use of the method is a key element in his Theory of Constraints. Theory of Constraints (TOC is an overall Management philosophy.

Training

The method is used by modern management training companies focusing on behaviour change, e. g. Krauthammer, Gustav Käser Training International, Dynargie. Krauthammer (also known as Krauthammer International is an international Professional services company whose main expertise is consultancy-based Coaching In this case the trainer acts as a facilitator who uses open questions to allow the participants to reflect on their way of thinking and behaviour, and then using closed questions to force them to make a decision towards a change in their thinking and/or behaviour. In sales communication training it is often referred to as the funnel concept. The open questions help to discover the needs of the client and the closed questions pin the client down and get to the 'Yes' to close the deal.

Lesson plan elements for teachers in classrooms

A skilled teacher can teach students to think for themselves using this method. This is the only classic method of teaching that was designed to create genuinely autonomous thinkers. There are some crucial lesson plan elements to this form of teaching:

Since a discussion is not a dialogue, it is not a proper medium for the Socratic method. However, it is helpful — if second best — 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 rather than appeal to authority. Pedagogy (ˈpɛdəgɒdʒi or paedagogy is the Art or Science of being a Teacher. In Politics, authority ( Latin Auctoritas, used in Roman law as opposed to Potestas and Imperium

More loosely, one can label any process of thorough-going questioning in a dialogue as an instance of the Socratic method.

Popular fiction

In an episode of House, MD, aptly titled The Socratic Method, the titular character House postulates that "without Socrates, we wouldn't have the Socratic Method, the greatest way of teaching things known to man, apart from juggling chainsaws"[6]. House, also known as House MD, is an American Medical drama, which debuted on the FOX network on November 16 2004 The Socratic Method is the sixth episode of the first season of House, which premiered on the FOX network on December 21, 2004. Gregory House, MD, is a Fictional character and Protagonist of the American Medical drama House. Juggling is a physical human skill involving the movement of objects usually through the air for entertainment (see Object manipulation) A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable mechanical motorized Saw.

See also

References

  1. ^ Jarratt, Susan C. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. William Clement Stone ( May 4, 1902 &ndash September 3, 2002) was a prominent businessman philanthropist and self-help book author " Insititutional Memory " is episode 153 of The West Wing, the penultimate episode of the series Maieutics is a complex procedure of Research introduced by Socrates, embracing the Socratic method in its widest sense Marva N Collins, born August 31 1936 to Henry and Bessie Knight Jr Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of Education. Irony is a literary or Rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or Discordance between what one says or does and what one means or Socratic Questioning is disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes including to explore complex ideas to get to the truth of A dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog) is a reciprocal Conversation between two or more entities. Rote learning is a Learning technique which avoids understanding of a subject and instead focuses on memorization. Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991. , p 83.
  2. ^ Sprague, Rosamond Kent, The Older Sophists, Hackett Publishing Company (ISBN 0-87220-556-8). , p. 5
  3. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition
  4. ^ The Goal, Eliyahu M. Goldratt, ISBN 0-88427-061-0
  5. ^ It's not Luck, Eliyahu M. Goldratt, ISBN 0-88427-115-3
  6. ^ House episode 01x06: The Socratic Method

External links

Socrates Cafe is the name used by a number of Philosophy discussion groups which take their model from the book of the same name by Christopher Phillips. Christopher R Phillips (born circa 1960 is the creator of the Socrates Cafe discussion groups
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic