What is ‘The Socratic Method’? [Illustrated]

[Music] to know that you're ignorant is best to know what you do not is a disease but if you recognize the malady of mine if what it is than that is health in a way the origin of Western philosophy can almost be traced back to one day in ancient Greece when an Athenian by the name of tariffs on traveled to Delfy to visit the temple of apollo the reason for his visit was the temple's high priestess Pythia who is widely known as the Delphic Oracle this illustrious figure was said to be a vessel for the god apollo thus having enthusiasts moths or spirit consequently she was highly sought after for her prophecies now Kara Fong like most revering the authority and prestige of the Oracle had traveled all the way to Delfy to ask her a simple question is there any man in Athens wiser than socrates the Oracle when this was put to her responded no there are none wiser than socrates now this answer greatly troubled him when it was related to him for he believed that this could not possibly be the case there were plenty in Athens don't Socrates who certainly seemed wiser than he poets for one rhetorician such as protagonists artisans statesmen even prophets like Euthyphro so Socrates went about disproving the Oracle statement but as he began questioning their professedly wise men of Athens he began to realize that Pythia had been correct although these men purported to possess knowledge of their disciplines they in fact knew very little at all so what exactly happened during these conversations for Socrates to draw such a a radical conclusion surely not a debate because Socrates believed these men exceedingly better versed in himself so a debate would be futile instead the discussions which are later retold as dialogues by Socrates his student Plato took a dialectical form here meaning a discussion in which the participants solely rely on spoken reason or logos to attain the truth rather than heeding rhetoric or emotional Appeals for instance Socrates approaches each discussion from a place of irony and this Socratic irony as the 19th century Danish philosopher soon kicky guard would later call it is an invitation for the interlocutor or conversation partner to hold court on the subject after all they're the proclaimed experts on the field so they would be best suited to educate Socrates on these matters essentially Socratic irony is the use of flattery or by some accounts sarcasm the prompt to the other person into explaining what they think is the case an excellent example can be found at the beginning of the platonic dialogue we use the furrow where Socrates encounters the eponymous prophet and becomes interested in the fact that used to focus prosecuting his own father Euthyphro maintains that it is the pious or godly thing to do Socrates compliments him on the direction of his party and says ironically it is indeed most important to my admiral boorda Euthyphro that i should become your pupil now some way say that this is insincere but let us remember that socrates is pursuing that the wise men of Athens are to be believed when it comes to their expertise who better than Euthyphro to help attain a good understanding of the gods after this encouragement Euthyphro makes a comment about the nature of party which allows Socrates to now ask so tell me now by Zeus what you just now maintained you clearly knew what kind of thing do you say godliness and ungodliness are the irony here was necessary in facilitating the discussion and therefore evaluating youth of rose position the scholar Gregory blast-off's identifies this as the first stage of the Socratic method which in ancient Greek is called a lenka's where were we oh yes Socrates asked Euthyphro to explain the nature of godliness and Euthyphro not only responds that him prosecuting his father and pretty much stuff like that are the piety now of course this reply fails to answer the question doing very little to reveal the nature of piety instead only offering an example of it but don't worry Socrates sees through this and sharply holds him to an answer now finally Euthyphro certs what as holy is that what is dear to the gods great so this leads to the second and linking stage as discerned by vlastos soccer identifies a claim and determines its veracity the way he does so is always through clarification so he says the thing and the person that a dear to the gods are holy and the thing and the person that are hateful to the gods are unholy he recaps carefully the holy and the unholy are the exact opposites of each other is this not what we have said and use the forensic as ears ears yes yes well then Socrates continues have we said this also that the gods Euthyphro quarrel and disagree with each other and that there is enmity between them beautifuiiy agrees again yes we have said that now this here is a process of my ethics or philosophical midwifery as it is described by Plato in the dialogue the theaetetus the idea of the technique is that by coerce in the interlocutor to agree with a series of subsequent statements Socrates draws out the truth and this my attic encouragement is what blast-off's distinguishes as the third stage of a Lanka's now the fourth stage by the way is where Socrates turns up the heat because it's here that he implies that the subsequent statements are contrary to the original statement let us again defer to the Euthyphro dialogue as a demonstration Socrates gets Euthyphro to agree that in numerical disagreements one turns to a with Matilda solve it in dimensional disagreements one turns to objective measurement and that in the disagreements of mass one can resort to weighing the only disagreement that will cause animosity or rift must therefore be a matter without obvious resolution matters of right and wrong yes Socrates use the fairies these are the questions about which we should become enemies the mad gadfly then queries and how about the gods some of the gods to think some things are right or wrong and Noble or disgraceful and good or bad and others disagree for they would not war with each other if they did not disagree about these matters and use the photo confirms that this is a good summary once more so Socrates continues yes the gods in each group loves the things which they consider good and right and hate the opposites of these things and Euthyphro we ant confirms this time a bit more laconically but you say that some things are considered right by some of them and wrong by others and it is because they disagree about these things yes says Euthyphro then as it seems sir Socrates the same things are hated and loved by the gods and the same things would be dear in hateful to the gods then the same things would be both holy and unholy Euthyphro according to the statement I suppose so Euthyphro admits the whole exchange leads to this final concession which itself is a pork meaning embodying aporia or doubt at this juncture it seems that the words of Robert Burns were correct there is no such uncertainty as a sure thing although this is not the end of the dialogue it does a good job at embodying the fifth and final stage of a lenka's the demonstration that the original proposition was false but what good has been done what progress has been made one micron asked well surely by pursuing such a methodology one is further on the truth than we were to stop but in fact the exercise is not only eliminative it's also constructive from discounting what a thing is not we grow closer as to what it is as the great Francis Bacon opined if a man will begin with certainties he shall end in doubts but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties numerous Socratic dialogues showcase their Lanka's in action I for one find gorgeous and the Republic particularly interesting but at this point I think it's important to address what we can learn from it in my view there's one main lesson it's a lesson of intellectual modesty in the apology Socrates says although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good I am better off than he is the Heath knows nothing and thinks that he knows and I neither know will think that I know now from Socrates we can learn to be humble with one's claims of knowledge we learned to build philosophy from the bottom up and always questioned things that are taken for granted including one's own belief remember many a times hubris is the enemy of intellectual progress the unexamined life is not worth living and unfortunately that is the end of the video but if you've enjoyed it please do drop a like it's a great way of showing support for the channel and if you haven't already please subscribe to the polymath paradise they basically means that we can produce more content like this and be sure to turn on the notification bell just so it will pop up whenever we release new content thank you again for watching you [Music]

Channel: The Polymath's Paradise

Views: 182,143

Keywords: polymath, polymathparadise, miles atherton, Miles Atherton, charlie green, polymath paradise, PP illustrated, The Polymath Paradise, philosophy, socrates, socrates explained, socratic, socratic method, vlastos, elenchus, euthyphro, socrates help, socrates illustrated, socrates guide, euthyphro explained, elenchic, socratic dialogue, dialectic reasoning, socratic method guide, street epistemology, SE, Classics, plato, platonic dialogue, plato illustrated, atherton, pythia, delphic oracle

Id: vyt-62JsZjw

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 25 2019