Unveiling Socrates: The Mastermind Of Questioning AudioChapter from Think Like Socrates AudioBook by Steven Schuster

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Think like Socrates. Unlock the power of Socratic questioning to improve your critical thinking and persuasion skills, written by Stephen Schuster, narrated by Russell Newton. Greetings! My name is Socrates, and my thoughts changed the world. But that’s a bold and conceited statement for an introduction, so allow me to tell you a more detailed version of my story. As we speak, I'm sitting in a jail cell on the outskirts of Athens. Within minutes, a guard will bring me a drink. It will be a cup of hemlock, a poisonous potion prompting a paralytic passing. I shall empty the cup following which act I will become very sleepy and shut my eyes forever soon afterward. But before that happens, I wanted to share some of my ideas with you.

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I was born in Athens in ancient Greece. Always a private person, wishing to keep this habit in my last moments, too. Without too many personal details, I’m comfortable confessing that I have the reputation of a mysterious troublemaker in my homeland. People call me the first Western philosopher, but I don’t indulge in such self-polishing thoughts. Philosophers usually flatter themselves thinking they know a lot about the world. I don't think I know that much. The Peloponnesian war left a mark on my mind, and after returning to Athens, I isolated myself to think a bit. In my time, wisdom was the coolest label you could possess. If someone gathered a large support group behind his ideas, he was proclaimed wise.

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I took such “wisdom” with a large grain of salt. In my experience, many people who seem to be or claim to be wise are not that wise. This naturally proposes a problem. Those who believe in the authority of this sage, will blindly follow him, often at the cost of severe consequences. Questioning wisdom helps you discover flaws in it. If you don’t question, knowledge stands still as a rock instead of flowing and carving new ground like a river. Following this realization, I started asking questions more intentionally. I discovered that questioning a claim of something being true, tests its validity. If you question someone and they can prove that their claim is legit, great job.

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You made sure you’re not signing up for spreading false information, and you also helped someone practice defending their truth. For example, if someone claims that it is essential to worship the god Ares, I would ask, “What is essentialism? What is worshipping? Are there other gods to worship?" If they can’t articulate essentialism, how can they claim it is essential to worship Ares? If they can’t explain what worship is, how can they know if they are worshipping Ares, and therefore that they are doing an essential act? If someone making claims can’t answer the challenges imposed by questioning, how can they state that their claim is true? Plato, a bright young man used to follow me around Athens, learning my questioning style which he eventually bestowed upon his student – Aristotle. He became the teacher of Alexander the Great.

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Alexander spread these teachings in his large kingdom. Eventually, the Romans occupying Alexander's empire helped spread this questioning tradition further. After the Roman Empire fell apart, this precious knowledge rested idle for centuries until the miracle of the Renaissance happened. People again read the works of Plato and Aristotle and re-discovered the power of methodical questioning, and testing of claims – the style you today know as Socratic Questioning. I feel honored by the label. Questioning gets a bad reputation. Some mistakenly think that asking a question or many questions, means that the question maker is uneducated, or unwise. I think the opposite. True wisdom lies in the knowledge of acknowledging how little we actually know.

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When one gets to this realization, they can ask questions and get to more accurate facts. This being said, I must warn you that asking questions – and people being unable to answer them - can also be a quick way to make people resentful. I'm guilty of embarrassing a handful of important men in Athens who took my questions personally. When my questions highlighted their ignorance, they took it even worse. These VIPs -as you’d call them today - saw that others asked question like I did, so I was arrested for corrupting the fine people of Athens. Plato wrote a noteworthy piece about my trial and how I fought to defend myself utilizing the same questioning style for which I was arrested. Needless to say, that this made my enemies even more bitter. I was convicted. The court mistakenly asked me what I believed my punishment should be.

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I answered that they should feed me with a tasty meal every night at the sacred heart of the city to honor my achievement of opening the eyes of the people of Athens to real wisdom. My enemies did not appreciate neither my wit nor my suggestion. They assessed that my insolence is beyond redemption so they sentenced me to death. I haven’t got much time left so I’ll leave you with this - remember, the only thing you know for certain is that you know nothing. But don't take my word for it for I know nothing. Chapter 1. A Man of Mystery Socrates was a man shrouded in mystery. He bucked the typical Athenian standards of his time (c. 470-399 BCE), yet what little we know about him comes from secondhand sources with questionable reliability. i For one of the world’s most well-known philosophers, Socrates wrote nothing himself, but over the passing centuries, has almost become a character with different personality traits depending on the era the author was writing in or their beliefs.ii Much of what has been written about Socrates has been rejected as false. Referring to historical sources rather than more modern versions, which have taken certain liberties, we learned that Socrates stood out among his contemporaries in Athens.

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In an age where good looks and maintaining a healthy body were directly tied to success, the historical sources all readily agree that Socrates was unattractive in every way, including looking as if he’d skipped many meals rather than having the preferred aesthetic of a “potbelly." Historical accounts and drawings and busts from this period look nothing like the later statues depicting Socrates with a more handsome visage. We commonly see these later images on websites and dust jackets today.iii Beyond being recognizable for his notoriously bad appearance, Socrates was also a well-known and controversial person in Athens to the point he was mocked in plays by other philosophers of the era. He was often the butt of jokes in plays, subject to much comic ridicule. Aristophanes’ The Clouds is a perfect example of this. In his play, Aristophanes uses Socrates as the main character to show immorality and atheism immediately following the deeper examination of language and nature, none of which accurately portrays philosophical study.iv However, Socrates had his supporters, but much of their work wasn’t performed until after his death. For example, Plato’s Apology of Socrates is allegedly the defense given by Socrates at his trial when he was charged for irreverence toward the gods of Athens.v In this “apology,” Plato depicts Socrates as a man of integrity, intellect, and self-control, who possessed exceptional skills to frame an argument for discussion or debate. Despite their significant age difference—Plato was an infant when The Clouds was written in circa 423 BCE—the relationship between Plato and Socrates was that of a mentor/mentee.vi Aristotle’s work also provided us with insight into Socrates’ personality. In 367 BCE, Aristotle attended Academy, a school owned by Plato.

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Because we know Socrates and Plato had such a close relationship, it is unlikely Socrates’ methods and ideas would not have been discussed in the school. In later writings about Socrates, Aristotle says that Socrates asked questions, but he declined to give answers, and that was because he lacked the knowledge to do so. Aristotle further said Socrates looked to define the virtues, but that he did not spend his time studying nature, but rather ethics.vii In the years leading to Socrates’ trial and subsequent death, the military force had been fighting against Sparta for thirty years due to the Peloponnesian War. This had granted Athenian citizens significant freedom, given they didn’t disrupt the democracy or break the law. However, in 399 BCE, Socrates was charged with irreverence toward the gods. In the years during and immediately following the Peloponnesian War, there were several attempts to overthrow the democracy of Athens and religious scandals that had primed both the public and officials. After the previous events, there was a definite expectation that future perpetrators would be brought up on charges.viii The mood of the Athenians was further soured as they particularly did not like Socrates. This was expressed in Plato’s Apology of Socrates. In Apology, we saw Socrates as someone who repeatedly tried to do his best by his community.

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But no matter what he did, they were unimpressed and hostile. Socrates was not a wealthy man and lacked political influence. He knew he would be found guilty and face death despite his desire and genuine attempts to help the people of Athens.ix Socrates was found guilty of impiety and sentenced to death for his crimes.x The death of Socrates was almost as famous as his life and teachings. Many people can immediately tell you how Socrates diedhe committed suicide by drinking a cup of poison hemlock. Socrates did this because that is how Athenians carried out death sentences at the time. He was made to become his own executioner. Socrates had earnestly tried to win his trial, but his attitude and previous history worked against him. While we know how Socrates died, we know close to nothing about how he was as a child. Can you imagine how often he must have asked “why” from his parents?

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It’s almost scary to picture a Socrates-level childlike curiosity. We can assume that the philosopher was inquisitive from an early age, sharpening his intellect and ability to question. How did he develop his methodical questioning style? Was it something that he intentionally prepared for? Or was it rather the result of repetition? What do you think? We rely significantly on others and their impressions of Socrates to form our assessment of the controversial philosopher’s ideas, thoughts, and assessments. This makes Socrates and his philosophy something of a mystery. This book aims to unveil the secrets and introduce you to his techniques and how to use them in your everyday life.

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The birth of Socratic Questioning. Chaerophon, one of Socrates’ close friends, visited the Oracle of Delphi, the most important and respected shrine in Greece, and asked if there was a wiser man than Socrates.xi The Oracle claimed that Socrates was the wisest man in Greece. When Socrates heard what the Oracle had said, he was surprised. The Oracle would have to be wiser than Socrates to know exactly how wise Socrates was and name him the wisest man in Greece. This was the fateful beginning of Socratic questioning. Firm in his resolution, Socrates attempted to find a wiser man than himself. He sought and asked questions from fellow Athenians known to be sagacious. The mere fact that he questioned the Oracle of Delphi’s judgment was an outrageous deed. Plus, all the insolent questions he peppered the good sages of Athens in his attempt to find the truth.

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Finding the truth is at the heart of Socratic questioning. By asking meaningful questions, we expand our knowledge as we hear out the arguments of others. xii The Socratic method is not a debate, and the individuals participating in the process are not there to defend their viewpoint. The participants are present because they want to work together to discover the truth. But this is a tricky undertaking as what’s true to one person might not be true for another. Socrates noticed that different words and expressions meant different things to different people. Thus, in his quest to find the truth, he established that one must define a concept well. Now, finding a perfect definition is not an easy task. Let’s try to define what justice is. The definition of it?

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People have different opinions on how to define justice depending on their worldview and the values and norms created by their families and society. Some people will see justice as a black-and-white issue, a set of rules that should never be broken. Others will consider the issue's circumstances as mitigating factors, meaning justice can be more of a gray area. And some would state, “justice is when you get what you deserve." But who is the judge of what one deserves? In the following example, let’s assume that following the law is the definition of justice. Jack works in a supermarket and spots a customer attempting to steal items. He reports this to the manager on duty, who promptly calls the police. The police arrive at the store, and the woman is about to be arrested when Jack overhears the customer apologizing to the store manager as she explains she can’t feed her children right now as she had recently lost her job.

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In a show of sympathy for the woman’s plight, the manager decides not to press charges against her. In this scenario, Jack might use Socratic questioning to ask, “If we don’t follow through with prosecuting this woman, as awful as her situation is, will others believe they can steal from us too?" “Has the woman attempted to use one of the foodbanks in the area, and what other resources can we direct her to?" “How do shoplifters affect our livelihood? If our store experiences too much shoplifting, we would go out of business." Sticking to the belief that “following the law is justice,” these are valid questions when thinking about handling such a difficult predicament. By employing these questions, the idea is to see the bigger picture. Using the Socratic method on our day-to-day moral dilemmas can help us find our true sense of justice to wrap our heads around some difficult situations. What would you have done?

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What would your belief about justice be? As we saw, it was difficult to pinpoint an accurate and universal definition for the concept of justice. Socrates realized this, too. So, he was set in developing a way that gave birth to more precise definitions. He asked questions that got him closer to these definitions, sometimes to the embarrassment of others. One of the primary tenets of the American justice system is that it is better to let ten guilty men go free than to allow one innocent man be convicted. However, today you can find countless cases that document police corruption and coercion against innocent men and women for the sake of closing a case, revenge, laziness, railroading, or money. These infamous cases include the Central Park 5, the Kids for Cash scandal in Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Personal Assistant, and Nick Yarris. However, one prominent example of justice gone wrong is with American serial killer Kenneth McDuff.xiii McDuff, also known as the Broomstick Killer, had the distinction of being one of twenty death row inmates but was paroled after his sentence was commuted.

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f was originally convicted in: 1966

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On Knowledge One thing is clear, focusing on finding a correct definition of concepts was critical to Socrates. He spent “most of its time defining just one term, justice." Plato wrote this in his work, the Republic, which contains the – probably - most well-known Socratic dialogue.xv Socrates argued that a man should actively seek knowledge to help him moderate his actions and thoughts. The best way to knowledge is by asking multiple sources, visiting the issue from various angles, and logically assessing information. In Socrates’ mind, this was the way to wisdom.xvi How would you define a car? Would it be something that people drive to get from A to B? Some may say they drive trucks, SUVs, boats, motorcycles, or mopeds. Almost any motorized vehicle that exists today can be driven, and they are all different. Cars can be electric, gasoline, or hybrid models.

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There are self-driving models to consider, and many people will even say the word “car” to be universally interchangeable with some of the other terms listed above, as that is used for their everyday transportation. When you stop and think about all these little details, Plato’s demand for the perfect definition becomes quite the challenge. The crucial part of the Socratic method is it allows us to ask the same questions repeatedly to define all the challenging questions we face throughout our lifetime. There is no requirement that we reach particular developmental milestones before employing Socratic questioning. We can use Socratic questioning on the same topic multiple times as we grow and change throughout our development as social, ethical, and physical beings. Social scientists such as Art Chickering, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Erik Erikson built their careers and conducted extensive research on identity development. This research tells us that individuals move through specific stages or can even exist in multiple stages of development depending on several factors. As a person moves in and out of these developmental stages, their use of Socratic questioning would have them asking deeper, more profound questions and even changing their stances on some issues.xvii When considering how this might look with other theoretical examples, we can look at Kohlberg’s moral identity development. In a scenario of going to a homeless shelter and helping feed the homeless, someone in the early stages of developing their moral identity might employ questions such as, “How does helping the homeless benefit me?

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If I help the homeless, will the homeless be able to help me achieve something I need in return?" But a person in the later stages of developing their moral identity would ask, “Are there additional things I can do to help the homeless in my city? What do the homeless need to help them live stable and safe lives?" The more we grow, the more we know, we could conclude. But is that necessarily true? Socrates found a definition of knowledge. He called it the absolute truth. He believed that everything in the universe was interconnected. Knowing one thing can help us derive potentially everything from that one central truth.

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Socrates intended to uncover basic ideas that he called forms. We can see this in action when Socrates asks Meno what virtue is. Not grasping Socrates’ intent, Meno gives examples of virtuous acts as his answer. This disappoints Socrates and informs him that he needs to tweak his question. Next time he asks Meno what those virtuous acts have in common. In Socrates’ belief, whatever connects all virtuous acts is what virtue inherently is. If we think about a forest, a person can see the trees but not see the forest. The trees are the virtuous acts, and the forest is virtue itself. Once they understand what a forest or virtue is, they get a full grasp of the concept.

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Virtue is abstract; it exists outside the physical world, so unlike a visible-tangible forest, virtue is harder to fully get. The same goes for all forms of abstractions – they can’t be grasped by the human senses, but they can be reasoned by human thought.xviii What Socrates asks from Meno is not the dictionary-ready definition of virtue, more like the essence of virtue. This is an important distinction. A dictionary-ready or nominal definition describes something as precisely as possible, leaving no confusion about the described thing. We learn “how is this word used? Rather than “what this thing is?”xix A great definition must accomplish two things at once - on the one hand, it must be clear enough to be evident what we’re talking about. But it should also leave no questions about how the described thing is distinct from all others. The definition of something thus has to be so descriptive and differentiating that we won’t mistake it for another thing. The Socratic method helps pin down such definitions.

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A polar bear is a big animal with white fur, right? But what is big exactly? That’s a relative term. Big to you may not be big at all. And what about white rabbits, dogs, cats, and foxes? They all have white fur. There are also snow leopards and Siberian tigers. Aren’t they also big animals with white fur? What sets polar bears apart from these other animals?

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These are the questions that should help one engage their critical thinking skills and provide a better definition of a polar bear. According to Socrates, we don't know the essence of a polar bear if we can't define it to exclude all other types of bears and other big animals with white fur. Good definitions follow these six steps - 1. They are neither too narrow nor too broad. 2. They are clear, not vague. 3. They are literal, not figurative. 4. They are short, rather than long. 5. They are positive, instead of negative whenever possible. 6. They are to the point, not circular.xx Socratic questioning, and its quest to find the truth in well-phrased definitions, resulted in the rise of two types of reasoning - deductive and inductive. If we utilize Socrates-approved definitions with these types of reasoning, and add some critical thinking, we practice something that’s called the scientific method.

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Let’s see the nominal definition and explanation for inductive and deductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning begins with a general statement, (hypothesis) and examines the possibilities to reach a specific, logical conclusion.xxi It consists of a first premise, a second premise, and an inference (evidence and reasoning-based conclusion). For example, Premise 1 - All big cats have four legs. Premise 2 - Tigers are big cats. Inference - Therefore, tigers have four legs. Deductive reasoning must be sound. To achieve this, the hypothesis needs to be correct. We assume that premise 1, "All big cats have four legs" and premise 2, "tigers are big cats" are true. Thus, the inference is logical and also true.

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“In deductive reasoning, if something is true of a class of things in general, it is also true for all members of that class.”xxii Deductive reasoning is a solid thinking tool if the premises are true. But let’s see a different example - Premise 1 - Grandmas make all homemade knitwear. Premise 2 - Anne knits for herself. Inference - Therefore, Anne is a grandma. As you can see, while this conclusion is valid in a logical sense, it’s still untrue as premise 1 is false. According to the University of Illinois in Springfield, inductive reasoning “involves finding the path that leads to a known solution. Inductive reasoning is the ability to combine information that may seem unrelated to form general rules or relationships. It is a primary attribute in scientific theory formulation. As an example of inductive reasoning, in a crime, you have the evidence.

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The goal is to use inductive reasoning to determine how the evidence came to be as it is.”xxiii In contrast with deductive reasoning, where we go from the general to the specific, we start at a specific point and go towards the general in inductive reasoning. “We make many observations, discern a pattern, make a generalization, and infer an explanation or a theory," Wassertheil-Smoller told Live Science. "In science, there is a constant interplay between inductive inference (based on observations) and deductive inference (based on theory), until we get closer and closer to the 'truth,' which we can only approach but not ascertain with complete certainty."xxiv An example of inductive reasoning could be - Premise 1 - The ostrich is a bird. Premise 2 - The ostrich can’t fly. Inference A - Thus, birds can’t fly. Inference B - Thus, some birds can’t fly. Despite both premises being correct, ostriches are birds, and they can’t fly, inductive reasoning can’t guarantee that the conclusion will be correct. Inference A doesn’t logically follow based on the premises. Inference B is probably true.

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After all, they are strong or weak with inductive conclusions, rather than valid or invalid. Other examples of inductive reasoning could be - Data - It rained a lot in the past five years. Hypothesis - Probably it will rain a lot this year. Data - I yawn whenever someone else yawns next to me. Hypothesis - It’s possible that yawning is contagious. The goal of inductive reasoning is to find patterns and create rules to explain the observed phenomena. Socratic questioning is a form of critical thinking. When we use the Socratic Method to question things, to sharper our definitions to get to the truth of a matter, we practice critical thinking. To meaningfully question an argument, we first must understand that argument well.

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After we deepen our knowledge about the argument itself, we can look for weaknesses based on which we may ask our questions. Weaknesses usually present themselves in the form of assumptions. We can ask, “how do these assumptions prove or disprove the argument? What are the assumptions based on?" How is the argument defined? What is clear, and what is distinct about it? What alternative viewpoints could this argument be presented from? Look for the answer to all these questions. Try to see the issue from different perspectives.

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This is how you practice Socratic questioning. The Steps Of Socratic Questioning Beginning the process of Socratic Questioning can be overwhelming. Where do you start when presented with an argument? What do you question? How do you do it? Start by paraphrasing the argument and then summarize it. Whatever we understand, we can summarize. If you don’t understand something, ask questions about those terms and phrases to gain clarity. Before you engage in asking questions, understand the argument perfectly.

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Otherwise, your questions will be weakly relevant. 1. Ask for an opinion or a definition. Formulate your question clearly and precisely. Keep an emotional distance from the matter. The more invested you are emotionally in a subject, the harder it will be to stay impartial and logical. 2. Build on this initial opinion or definition by asking questions that offer further clarification, understanding, and precision. 3. Gather the relevant information from the answer to your question and assess it with logic. 4. If you need further clarification, ask follow-up questions. Approach the issue with open-mindedness and curiosity, with a thirst to learn.

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5. Look for assumptions and biases in the answer but also in your questions. 6. Ask about the source of information. Do other sources support it? Can it be verified? 7. Don’t jump to conclusions prematurely. When facing a complex issue, take time to think about both your questions and the answers. Analyze if logic holds in the context in which the answers are presented. Would a conclusion follow effortlessly, or would it be contrived? 8. Enjoy the collaboration of idea sharing as both you and the one you question will now have access to a better, deeper understanding of the questioned phenomenon.

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9. This shall only work if both of you are invested in finding the truth instead of defending your viewpoint. 10. Accept that the Socratic questioning may cause dissatisfactory answers and results. This happens because the goal is not to convince but to learn. Picture 1xxv - Socratic Questioning Map. Consider the picture above. Its implicit classifications can help you better understand these important aspects of thinking in a Socratic fashion - “All thinking has a history in the lives of particular persons. All thinking depends upon a substructure of reasons, evidence, and assumptions. All thinking leads us in some direction or other (has implications and consequences).

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All thinking stands in relation to other possible ways to think (there is never just one way to think about something).”xxvi Taking all this into account, reflect on how you came to think the way you think about a certain issue. Why. List the reasons, assumptions, and sources that underlie what you think. Approaches To Socratic Questioning 1. The Boot Camp Approach. This approach aims to break the person in the “boot camp." Imagine you are a brand new private in the army, and your boss is a big mean drill sergeant who has it out for you. In all your meetings, your boss drills you constantly, asking question after question until he finally asks one you don’t have a response for. Thankfully, we don’t see this high-pressure approach too much anymore, which is likely better for everyone’s blood pressure. 2. The Accountability Approach.

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Think back to when you were in school. Do you remember when your teacher would call out “Time for a pop quiz”? Whether or not you’d done your reading the night before directly affected how much you sweated it during that quiz. This is the accountability approach briefly. It’s simply a checkup on you to verify that you’ve done the things you should be doing. 3. The Thinking Approach is close to Socrates’ method when he engaged others in his philosophical questioning exercises. People’s knowledge and critical thinking were tested with profound questions. For example, a law school professor might ask, "Ms. Greene, were the plaintiff’s first amendments rights violated when she was prevented from joining other cheerleaders on the football field until after the national anthem had been concluded due to her refusal to stand during the anthem?" The professor will also ask the students to extrapolate beyond their readings to apply theories and principles in advanced ways. For example, “Ms. Greene, does your response change in any way if I tell you that the plaintiff was attending a private university instead of a public state university?"

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tic Questioning, published in: 2006

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•Was this purpose justifiable? •What is the purpose of addressing this question at this time? 3. Questions That Probe Assumptions •What are you assuming? •What could we assume instead? •You seem to be assuming … . Do I understand you correctly? •Is it always the case? Why do you think the assumption holds here? 4. Questions That Probe Information, Reasons, Evidence, and Causes.

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•What would be an example? •How do you know? •Why do you think that is true? •Is this good evidence for believing that? 5. Questions about Viewpoints or Perspectives. •You seem to be approaching this issue from … perspective. Why have you chosen this perspective rather than that perspective? •How would other groups or types of people respond? Why?

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What would influence them? •How could you answer the objection that … would make? •Can/did anyone see this another way? 6. Questions That Probe Implications and Consequences. •What are you implying by that? •When you say … , are you implying? •What effect would that have? •What is an alternative? 7. Questions about the Question •How can we find out?

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•Is this the same issue as … ? •How could someone settle this question? •What does this question assume? 8. Questions That Probe Concepts •What is the main idea we are dealing with? •Why/how this idea is important? •Do these two ideas conflict? If so, how? •What was the main idea guiding the character's thinking in this story? 9. Questions That Probe Inferences and Interpretations.

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•Which conclusions are we coming to about…? •On what information are we basing this conclusion? •Is there a more logical inference we might make in this situation? •How are you interpreting her behavior? Is there another possible interpretation?”xxviii This is an abundant list of questions. Warren Berger, an American journalist, and the author of The Book of Beautiful Questions pinned down five essential questions one can ask to improve their critical thinking and understanding. How can I see this from a new perspective? What am I assuming? What conclusion am I rushing?

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by Russell Newton. Copyright: 2022