Socrates used to say he was the midwife of wisdom. Talking to him made you wise(r). No wonder he was executed for corrupting the minds of the youth. How exactly did he evoke that latent wisdom? What was so enlightening about the Socratic method? There are many answers, of which one is the skill with which he used reason and argument. Remember that systematic reasoning was new in his time - very few people were literate and the line between myth and history was not as sharply drawn as it is today. Some of Socrates’ contemporaries - the Sophists, for example - were drawing crowds based on their use of reason for winning debates. Socrates repurposed this newly discovered tool for truth seeking.
Wystem: A System for Wicked Problems, Part 1
Wystem: A System for Wicked Problems, Part 1
Wystem: A System for Wicked Problems, Part 1
Socrates used to say he was the midwife of wisdom. Talking to him made you wise(r). No wonder he was executed for corrupting the minds of the youth. How exactly did he evoke that latent wisdom? What was so enlightening about the Socratic method? There are many answers, of which one is the skill with which he used reason and argument. Remember that systematic reasoning was new in his time - very few people were literate and the line between myth and history was not as sharply drawn as it is today. Some of Socrates’ contemporaries - the Sophists, for example - were drawing crowds based on their use of reason for winning debates. Socrates repurposed this newly discovered tool for truth seeking.