How to Learn the Socratic Method

And where to begin using philosophy for self-improvement

Copyright the Trustees of the British Museum, reproduced by permission.

Almost everyone today knows of Socrates, the famous Athenian philosopher, and most people have at least heard of the Socratic Method, the question-and-answer approach to philosophy made famous by him. Very few, however, can describe what the Socratic Method looks like in practice.

Various methods dubbed “Socratic questioning” are used today in teaching law and medicine, and in the practice of psychotherapy, especially cognitive therapy. However, these are only very loosely related to the original Socratic Method. In some regards, they’re quite at odds with the approach Socrates actually employed.

We have, as it happens, ample evidence of the Socratic Method, as we can observe it being deployed in the Socratic dialogues written by his students Plato and Xenophon, about eighty of which, in total, survive today. Nevertheless, we lack a clear outline of the method. Nowhere is Socrates depicted saying: “Here’s how my philosophical method works…”

It surprises many people to learn, therefore, that tucked away in an obscure dialogue from Xenophon’s Memorabilia Socratis (2.4) we do find an account of Socrates explaining the best way to start learning his philosophical method. In fact, he does so by means of a simple teaching…