The Socratic Method Today

There has been a renewed interest in pedagogy, teaching, and student learning in political science, with a focus on topics like flipping the classroom and active learning.[1][2] Surprisingly absent in this discussion is the Socratic method, one of the oldest ways whereby teachers educate students. This book remedies this situation. It examines how the Socratic method is employed in the Platonic dialogues, how it is similar and different from contemporary pedagogical accounts, and how it can be adopted in today’s classroom. Although aimed primary for those in political science, this collection has broad appeal to anyone interested in Socratic method.

When looking at the previous works on the Socratic method, we encounter two types of books: 1) how-to-manuals that are written for secondary school teachers; and 2) highly technical works of political philosophy where the Socratic method is secondary to the broader concerns of the authors. Examples of the first type are Nelson’s Socratic Method and Critical Philosophy; Gower’s and Stokes’ Socratic Questions; Seeskin’s Dialogue and Discovery; Nehamas’ The Art of Living; Valla’s Socratic Citizenship; Eisele’s Bitter Knowledge; Jenks’ How Plato’s Theory of Truth Explains the Socratic Method; Schlosser’s What Would Socrates Do?; and Sebell’s The Socratic Turn.[3] There also are works where the Socratic method is the main subject of inquiry but fail to show how the ideas can be translated into the classroom, such as Scott’s Does Socrates Have a Method?; Cain’s The Socratic Method; and Sintonen’s The Socratic Tradition.[4]

The second type of works about the Socratic method are entirely practical, devoid of any philosophical consideration, and aimed at secondary school teachers: Whipple Jr.’s Socratic Method and Writing Instruction; Saran’s and Neisser’s Enquiring Minds; and Kreeft’s Socratic Logic.[5] Other books in this category that focus on fostering group discussion are Gross’ Socrates’ Way; Copeland’s Socratic Circles; and Wilberding’s Teach Like Socrates.[6] And with respect to the study of law, the emphasis is about the Socratic method’s effectiveness (or lack thereof) as a pedagogical technique.[7] The works in this group lack any theoretical grounding of the Socratic method and thereby neglect the larger philosophical and pedagogical debates that surround it.

Providing a fresh, scholarly, and practical account of the Socratic method, this book synthesizes the strengths of the previous literature by integrating the theoretical considerations of the Socratic method with the practical aspects of teaching in the classroom. In this work, we have invited a mixture of established and rising scholars to provide a broad perspective of the Socratic method. We have organized the volume into three section: 1) The Socratic Method in Plato’s Dialogues; 2) The Socratic Method and Other Approaches; and 3) The Socratic Method in the Classroom.

In the first chapter of the first section, Marlene K. Sokolon shows how Socrates employs a mixture of stories, appeals, and argumentation to persuade his interlocutors, while in “Socratic Method and Socratic Existence: Comedic Elements in the Apology,” Barry Cooper investigates how elenchus is understood in both the Apology and the Euthyphro as a type of transformative learning. In “Guiding Eros Towards Wisdom in Alcibiades I: Socratic Education in Plato’s Alcibiades I,” Vanessa Jansche looks at how the Socratic method requires a realignment of one’s eros towards philosophy. Ann Ward concludes this section by reconciling different aspects of the Socratic method from the Apology and the Meno. What we discover from these chapters is the Socratic method is more than a technique: it requires a range of devices to access the motivations of students so they can become active learners.

For the second section, the Socratic method is compared with other philosophical and pedagogical approaches of teaching and learning. Steven F. McGuire compares Socrates’ and Kant’s understandings of recollection and the role it plays in their educational philosophies. In “The Americanization of the Socratic Method,” Andrew Bibby shows that the Socratic method adopted at the time of the American Founding was transformed into a mode of individual critical thinking and self-expression. David W. Livingstone explains in “One of These Things is Not Like the Other: John Dewey’s Inquiry-Based Learning and the Socratic Method” how the Socratic method is sometimes incorrectly equated to Dewey’s discovery of learning. Finally, Jordon Barkalow investigates the Socratic method as an alternative to student-centered learning in his chapter, “The Courage to Recover Student-Centered Learning: Plato’s Laches.”

The final section explores some of the practical concerns and challenges of teaching the Socratic method in the classroom. In “’No Guru, No Method, No Teacher’: Socrates and Education,” Sean Steel argues that the Socratic method as a technique is indistinguishable from that of the sophists and that the real difference lies in the motivations of the teacher. Rebecca LeMoine examines whether the Socratic method is culturally imperialistic, particularly in multicultural classrooms in her chapter, “Is the Socratic Method Culturally Imperialistic?” Paul Corey in “Perilous Dialectics: The Continuing Hazards of the Socratic Method in Contemporary Universities” discusses the obstacles teachers confront that make the Socratic method difficult to teach in today’s university; and Ramona June Grey closes on volume on whether a set of standards can be discovered in the Socratic method.

What we can conclude from all these chapters is that the Socratic method is both a technique and a transformative experience where the student’s soul is turned away from realm of opinion towards a search for truth (Republic 515e).[8] Although the teacher can employ an array of techniques, enchantments, and appeals to the student, the love for wisdom ultimately lies outside the control of the instructor. Like love and friendship, the Socratic method is like a prayer rooted in hope that this fragile enterprise we undertake will yield something good for us and our students–but only the gods know for sure.

Notes

[1] I want to thank APSA where these papers were presented at the 2017 Teaching and Learning Conference; the staff at Routledge, especially Natalja Mortensen and Maria Landschoot; and the referees for this project.

[2] Some recent examples are Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do (Cambridge: Harvard, 2004); Anne C. Martin and Ellen Schwartz, Making Space for Active Learning: The Art and Practice of Teaching (New York: Teacher College Press, 2014); Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet, It Works for Me, Flipping the Classroom: Shared Tips for Effective Teaching (Stillwater: New Forum Press, 2015); Claire Howell Major and Michael S. Harris, Teaching for Learning (London: Routledge, 2015); Julee B. Waldrop and Melody A. Bowdon, Best Practices for Flipping the Classroom (London: Routledge, 2015).

With respect to political science, see Diana E. Hess, Controversy in the Classroom (London: Routledge, 2009); Paula McAvoy, The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education (London: Routledge, 2015); Laure Paquette, Teaching Political Science to Undergraduates (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015); Sule Yaylaci and Edana Beauvais, “The Role of Social Group Membership on Classroom Participation” PS: Political Science & Politics 50/2 (2017): 599-64.

[3] Leonard Nelson, Socratic Method and Critical Philosophy: Selected Essays (Mineola: Dover, 1949); Barry S. Gower and Michael C. Stokes, Socratic Questions (London: Routledge, 1992); Kenneth Seeskin, Dialogue and Discovery: A Study in the Socratic Method (Albany: SUNY Press, 1987); Alexander Nehamas, The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000); Dana Valla, Socratic Citizenship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001); Thomas D. Eisele, Bitter Knowledge: Learning Socratic Lessons of Disillusion and Renewal (South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009); Rod Jenks, How Plato’s Theory of Truth Explains Socratic Method (Lewinston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010); Joel Alden Schlosser, What Would Socrates Do? Self-Examination, Civic Engagement, and the Politics of Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014); Dustin Sebell, The Socratic Turn: Knowledge of Good and Evil in an Age of Science (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2016).

Other, similar works are Gregory Vlastos,“The Socratic Elenchus” in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, ed. Julia Annas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), 27-58; Leo Straus, The City and the Man (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1964); Seth Bernardete, Second Sailing: On Plato’s Republic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989); Jill Gordon, Turning Toward Philosophy: Literary Device and Dramatic Structure in Plato’s Dialogues (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999); Gregory Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991); Diskin Clay, Platonic Questions: Dialogues with the Silent Philosopher (University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000); Melissa Lane, Plato’s Progeny: How Plato and Socrates Still Capture the Modern Mind (London: Bristol Classical Press, 2001); Iakovos Vassiliou, Aiming for Virtue in Plato (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

[4] Gary Alan Scott, Does Socrates Have a Method? Rethinking Elenchus in Plato’s Dialogue and Beyond (University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 2002); Rebecca Bensen Cain, The Socratic Method: Plato’s Use of Philosophical Drama (London: Continuum, 2007); Matt Sintonen, The Socratic Tradition: Questioning as Philosophy and as a Method (London: College Publications, 2009).

[5] Robert D. Whipple Jr., Socratic Method and Writing Instruction (Lanham: University Press of America, 1997); Rene Saran and Barbara Neisser, Enquiring Minds: Socratic Dialogue in Education (Stoke-on-Tent: Trentham Books, 2004); Peter Kreeft, Socratic Logic: A Logic Text Using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles (South Bend: St. Augustine’s Press, 2005).

[6] Ronald Gross, Socrates’ Way: Seven Master Keys to Using Your Mind to the Utmost (New York: TarcherPerige, 2002); Matt Copeland, Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School (Portland, ME: Stenhouse Press, 2005); Erick Wilberding, Teach Like Socrates: Guiding Socratic Dialogues and Discussion in the Classroom (Austin: Prufrock Press, 2014); also see Tziporah Kasachkoff, In the Socratic Tradition: Essays on Teaching Philosophy (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998).

[7] Frank Guliuzza III, “In-Class Debating in Public Law Classes as a Complement to the Socratic Method.” PS: Political Science & Politics 24/4 (1991): 703-5; Steven Friedland, “How We Teach: A Survey of Teaching Techniques in American Law Schools” Seattle University Law Review 20/1 (1996): 1-44; Lani Guinier, Michelle Fine, and Jane Balin, Becoming Gentlewomen: Women, Law School, and Institution Change (Boston: Beacon, 1997); Cynthia G. Hawkins-León, “The Socratic Method-Problem Method Dichotomy: The Debate Over Teaching Method Continues.” Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal 1 (1998): 1-18; Orin S. Kerr, “The Decline of the Socratic Method at Harvard.” Nebraska Law Review 78 (1999): 113-34; Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, “Inside the Classroom of Harvard Law School Professor David Wilkins.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 25 (1999): 113-19; Peter M. Cicchino, “Love and the Socratic Method.” American University Law Review 50 (2001): 533-50; Avi Mintz, “From Grade School to Law School: Socrates’ Legacy in Education” in A Companion to Socrates, ed. Sara Ahbel-Rappe and Rachana Kamtekar (London: Blackwell, 2006), 476-92; Carrie-Ann Biondi, “Socratic Teaching: Beyond The Paper Chase.” Teaching Philosophy 31/2 (2008): 119-40; Benjamin V. Madison III, “The Elephant in Law School Classrooms: Overuse of the Socratic Method as an Obstacle to Teaching Modern Students.” University of Detroit Mercy Law Review 85 (2008): 293-346; Joseph A. Dickinson, “Understanding the Socratic Method in Law School Teaching After the Carnegie Foundation’s Educating Lawyers.” Western New England Law Review 31/1 (2009): 97-113; Evan Peterson, “Teaching to Think: Applying the Socratic Method Outside the Law School Setting.” Journal of College Teaching & Learning 6/5 (2009): 83-87; Christie A. Linskens Christie, “What Critiques Have Been Made of the Socratic Method in Legal Education? The Socratic Method in Legal Education: Uses, Abuses, and Beyond.” European Journal of Law Reform 12/3-4 (2010): 340-55; Michael Hunter Schwartz, Gerald F. Hess, Sophie M. Sparrow, What the Best Law Teachers Do (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013); Jamie R. Abrams, “Reframing the Socratic Method.” Journal of Legal Education 64/4 (2015): 562-85; Charles Szypszak, “Socratic Method for the Right Reasons and in the Right Way: Lessons from Teaching Legal Analysis Beyond the American Law School.” Journal of Political Science Education 11 (2015): 358-69.

[8] Alan Bloom, The Republic of Plato (New York: Basic Books, 1991).

This is from The Socratic Method Today (Routledge, 2017).