The Socratic Method

Though Socrates is often cited as the first 'Philosopher', no particular doctrine is associated with his name. Instead, the innovation that is most generally attributed to him is the 'Socratic Method'. Yet, despite its seeming univocality, the expression has a variety of meanings. First, because Socrates himself left no writings, and because his most prolific portrayer, Plato, represents him both with historical accuracy, and fictitiously, for his own purposes, some versions of the Method might be more accurately described as 'Platonic'. Second, there is a debate as to what is the nature of the procedure so denoted. For, there are three main interpretations of its structure: pedagogic, aporetic, and maieutic. With the pedagogic method, the examiner leads the interlocutor from a set of inconsistent beliefs to a coherent one that is set in advance. The aporetic process leads through a thicket of contradictions, but only to the conclusion that nothing is known. Finally, in a maieutic dialogue, the examiner is a catalyst in the interlocutor's clarification, for himself, of his own beliefs. Irony plays an important role in especially the first two, as the examiner feigns ignorance at certain junctures of the discussion in order to spur the interlocutor onward. All three have their prominent contemporary applications: the pedagogical for the transmission of settled knowledge, the aporetic as a tool for the sceptic or cynic, and the maieutic for the cultivation of specifically personal development. But a much less appreciated fourth alternative can be gleaned, by merely taking at face value a statement of Socrates' appearing in the Apology, the dialogue that is usually accepted as the most historically accurate of Plato's works. Therein, he pleads ignorance in response to claims presented to him, explaining that the reason that he so aggressively scrutinizes them is that he simply might learn something in the process, which suffices to distinguish him from rhetoricians who seek to dazzle with words in order to have an argument conceded to them. So, perhaps the greatest irony attached to the 'Socratic Method' is that its most literal meaning is hardly known to the majority of its purported practitioners.