Socratic Method of Philosophizing - Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person

hello Phil Oh notes friends welcome back for another edition of our daily whiteboard in the previous edition I briefly discussed the nature and dynamics of doing philosophy in today's whiteboard edition I will discuss one of the methods of philosophizing that is the Socratic method please note that my main intention here is to highlight those important concepts in the topic methods of philosophizing that may provide the students in philosophy with additional information that would help them further understand the different approaches to doing philosophy to begin with the Socratic method is a didactic dialogue of questioning that is expressed in the critical examination and cross-examination of the positions of every participant in the dialogue however it is important to note that this method is simply a way to discover the truth hence the Socratic method is neither a rhetoric or the art of persuasion nor a debate in which participants in a dialogue are discourse or discussion prove their position for this reason those who are involved in a dialogue do not attempt to persuade the other or debate with each other but work together to discover the truth thus the didactic dialogue of Socrates intense not to convey new truth but only as a guide in arriving at the truth Socrates calls this method meiotic or intellectual midwifery when intellectual midwifery is at work in a dialogue the participants do not force fit their own beliefs on others instead as already mentioned they work together to arrive at the truth applied in a classroom setting the teacher does not seek to inculcate the students with knowledge or truths on the contrary the teacher simply acts as a guide in arriving at certain truths thus in this method the students are no longer viewed as passive recipients of knowledge but as an active agent in the acquisition of knowledge here the students think for themselves and the Socratic teacher only facilitates the discussion it is worth noting however that the participants in the dialogue must first admit their ignorance this is because for Socrates knowledge begins the moment one admits her ignorance that is when one realizes that she does not know that's the famous accredit victim know thyself for sure it is when we admit that we do not know that there is so much to know that the more we know the more that we do not know that we begin to seek the truth and acquire wisdom more importantly the Socratic method is a way of thinking that involves three important steps in arriving at the truth in the first step we give an initial definition of a thing or a concept for example we say a table is a four-legged furniture in the second step we look for those characteristics of the table that are not captured in the initial definition for example we may ask the question is the table account we raise this question because if our initial definition of the concept of a table is based solely on the idea of four legs that it follows that anything that has four legs can be called a table but it's a cow really a table simply because it has four legs obviously not this question would lead us to the third step where we give additional or new definition of a table thus we may say a table is a four-legged furniture made up of wood and has a flat surface let me schematically show the three steps in Socratic method step one a table is a four-legged furniture step two is the table a cow step three a table is a four-legged furniture made up of wood and has a flat surface now if we repeat these steps then we eventually arrive at the truth that is we eventually come up with a precise definition of a table understood is the essence of a table indeed that which makes a table a table or that which makes a table completely different from any other such as a cow or a chair thus we may say a table is a four-legged furniture made up of wood has a flat surface rectangular in shape and is used primarily for dining or putting things on it as we can see this is the essence of a table this is what makes a table a table so that even if one sits on the table the table remains a table it does not become a chair because the main purpose of the table is for dining or for putting things on it and not first sitting let us consider another example step 1 freedom is the ability of the human person to do whatever she wants to do step 2 am I really free to kill my enemies simply because I hate him step 3 no we cannot just kill anybody we want to kill there are rules to follow in a civilized society now if we repeat this process then eventually we can come up with a true definition of freedom indeed with a Socratic method we are able to improve our understanding of something and eventually arrive at the truth for sure with a Socratic method an individual is able to move from the state of not-knowing to that of knowing lastly this process is what we call the Socratic dialectic all right that's it for today keep looking forward to our series of daily whiteboard additions as we try to make the learning and understanding of philosophy incredibly easy thanks for joining us today in this edition of our daily whiteboard here at filo notes full transcript of this video is available at feel or notes com to give you updated of our daily whiteboard additions here at filo notes just click here and subscribe until then thanks take care [Music]

Channel: PHILO-notes

Views: 26,597

Rating: 4.9340658 out of 5

Keywords: Socratic Method, Socratic Dialectic, Method of Philosophizing, Maieutic, Intellectual Midwifery, Socratic Dictum, Socrates's Dialectic, Socrates, Socrates's method of philosophizing

Id: BiIn_oQQRJk

Length: 7min 47sec (467 seconds)

Published: Sun May 06 2018