About 2,500 years ago, Plato wrote a set of dialogues that depict Socrates in conversation. The way Socrates asks questions and the reasons why amount to a whole way of thinking. This is the Socratic method—one of humanity’s great achievements. More than a technique, the method is an ethic of patience, inquiry, humility, and doubt. It is an aid to better thinking, and a remedy for bad habits of mind, whether in law, politics, the classroom, or tackling life’s big questions at the kitchen table.
Drawing on research from his 2021 book The Socratic Method: A Practitioner’s Handbook, Ward Farnsworth, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, explains what the Socratic method is, how it works, and why it matters.
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