Socratic Method and the Nature of Philosophy

The Socratic Method and the Nature of Philosophy

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher . It is a common misconception among students to consider him as the father of philosophy . The actual father of western philosophy is Thales of Miletus since he was the first person to explain the origin of the world without the use of myths There are no actual accounts to prove that Socrates actually existed since he never wrote anything . Instead , all the stories about him were written by his followers , most notably Plato , who presented him in most

of his works such as The Republic , Apology , etc . Given this , most scholars considered Socrates as a mouthpiece of Plato rather than an actual person . Although this may lead to further debate , we shall leave this for another discussion

Socrates is known to have used a method of questioning called the Socratic Method as his tool to philosophize . The Socratic Method is a dialogue composed of a set of questions that tackle moral and ethical questions . The method works by Socrates asking a question , the person answering it , and then Socrates would ask another question about what the person said . This process would just continue and would delve in various ideas until both of them would come with an agreement . It used as a mean for the person Socrates was talking with to develop new ideas which gave Socrates the nickname of the midwife of ideas ' since he never did give his students new ideas but simply guided them into giving birth of these ideas with the questions he asked

The use of the Socratic Method is deeply bound with other aspects of his philosophy . The Socratic Method was used to help the student or a person know more and life . Socrates said an unexamined life is not worth living ' this basically means that we often tend to take certain things in our life for granted without even explaining why . The method Socrates provides can show us that the things we usually take for granted are not that simple at all and can also help give us clarifications of these ideas . Aside from clarifying ideas , the method can also be used as a means to let a person know more about themselves . As the person continues to answer certain questions , certain facts about themselves may soon unfold throughout the dialogue . Finally , another purpose of the Socratic Method was basically to show that we really cannot have a full comprehension of the world . Socrates used the method to challenge people who would claim certain universal truths to show them that these proclamations do not fully describe the world . Socrates was also famous for the phrase I know that I know nothing ' which implies that as you continue to learn more about the world you would simply wind up with more questions about it rather that having a clearer understanding

Let us now move to two certain examples wherein the Socratic Method was used

First was in the...