The Socratic Method

Are Ideas Real? Do ideas like justice, loyalty, virtue, etc. exist as “real things” (i.e. similar to the ways horses, nails, poems, houses exist as “real things”), or do ideas exist only in the individual and collective human imagination (i.e. similar to the ways unicorns, space aliens, mermaids, etc. exist only in the imagination)? If ideas like justice and virtue are not “real,” then on what basis can one claim that statement about an idea is true or false or better than other statements about ideas? If ideas do exist as “real things,” where or how do they exist and how do we access them?

The Sophists Traveling teachers who lectured for pay. There is no “truth,” only power and success. Rhetoric not philosophy is best course of study.

Protagoras (@490-422 BCE) No absolutes. All is relative to human subjectivity. Learn local customs because being able to manipulate them leads to success. Subjectivism, relativism.

Gorgias (gore-gee-us) (@483-375 BCE) There is nothing (nihilism). If there were anything, no one could know it (skepticism). If anyone did know it, no one could communicate it (subjectivism). If I can prove these points, I can “prove” anything. The goal is to win arguments.

Thrasymachus (thra-see-mack-us) “Justice is in the interest of the stronger.” Might makes right. Power, not conventional notions of morality, should be everyone’s goal.

The trauma of birth obscures the individual’s perception of the Truth. The Truth is revealed/discovered by moving “outward” toward universal definitions and “inward” toward self-knowledge. “To learn” is really “to recollect.” Hence, “The unexamined life is not worth living” because it won’t be a life that seeks truth. To “know thyself” is to seek the Truth. Ideas and the Truth are real. They exist within each person (but this does not imply Protragoras’ subjectivism). The real person is housed in a human body but is not a body—it is a spirit or soul.

The Socratic Method: The Dialectic Step 1: Pose a question. “What is piety? (Euthyphro) “What is virtue?” (Meno) “What is meaning?” (Sophist) “What is love?” (Symposium) “What is justice?” (Republic)

Step 2: Find a “minor” flaw in the answer. Pull the thread of the flaw and unravel the garment. Thrasymachus: “Justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger.” What’s the flaw Socrates finds?

If justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger, and…. The stronger make the laws that serve their own interests, and…. The stronger sometimes err and make laws that are contrary to their own interests, and The stronger compel people to obey the laws, then…. Justice is acting both in AND against the interests of the stronger—a contradiction.

Thrasymachus’ Response “You argue like a quibbler.” What is a quibbler? Is Socrates’ point a “quibble?” Next attempt: “The ruler, in so far as he is the ruler, is unerring, and, being unerring, always commands that which is for his own interest.” In other words, someone is a true ruler only when faithfully practicing the art of ruling. How does this unravel?

So……..the rulers use the art of ruling to serve the interests of the ruled. And justice is nothing else than the interest of the ruled (or weaker). A doctor uses the art of medicine to serve the interests of the body, not the art of medicine. A horseman uses the art of horsemanship to serve the interest of the horse, not the art of horsemanship. An teacher uses the art of teaching to serve the interests of the student, not the art of teaching.

Facing Ignorance Step 3: Invitation to figure it out together. Neither of us knows, but we both want to know. So let’s figure it out together. Now that we’ve destroyed the pretense of knowing, let’s work together to construct an answer that expresses the Truth.

The Truth? Does it exist? What is it? Where is it? Is it desirable? How do you access it? How do you know when you’ve found it? And how will you enquire, Socrates, into that which you do not know? What will you put forth as the subject of enquiry? And if you find what you want, how will you ever know that this is the thing which you did not know? (Meno)