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Political Science Pedagogy pp 51–68Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Against the Socratic Method

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Part of the book series: Critical Political Theory and Radical Practice ((CPTRP))

Abstract

The Socratic Method (e.g. argumentative questioning, answering and refutation) is a limited and potentially a bad pedagogical practice because it is authoritarian and hierarchical. Often praised as neutral, open and welcoming, I make the case that it is not. The Socratic Method may have a future but it would require what I call the dialectical radicalization of it. This would lead to a greater awareness and sensitivity to the contexts of power pertaining to pedagogy that instructor led forms of the Socratic Method have occluded. Hence, I recover the Socratic Method as a mode of intellectual emancipation based on egalitarianism and challenging all forms of authority, especially the instructors. I connect this to a defense of democracy in the classroom.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Aristotle, Politics, trans. C. D. C Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett Press, 1998). See also Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958).

  2. 2.

    See Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, Why Deliberative Democracy? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009).

  3. 3.

    Downloaded on December 31, 2016 from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/socratic-teaching/606.

  4. 4.

    This is the conference blurb pertaining to the Socratic Method: “This theme will explore the Socratic Method in teaching political science and particularly political theory. Proposals might address topics such as the Socratic Method and its purpose in teaching; how was it understood by Plato and other subsequent thinkers; how the Socratic Method is relevant for the classroom; and effective ways to teach the Socratic Method today. Participants will leave with a greater understanding of the Socratic Method, how to implement it, and its pedagogical value” (https://www.apsanet.org/tlc/paperandworkshopthemes).

  5. 5.

    See Leo Strauss, Socrates and Aristophanes (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1966), p. 3.

  6. 6.

    Werner Jaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, trans. Gilbert Highet (New York: Oxford University Press, 1943), p. 13.

  7. 7.

    See Dana Villa, Socratic Citizenship (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), p. xi.

  8. 8.

    See Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” in Why We Can’t Wait (New York: Signet, 2000), pp. 67–68. See also Cornel West, Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism (New York: Penguin, 2005).

  9. 9.

    For a defense of Socratic Method‚ see Peter Boghossian, “Socratic Pedagogy: Perplexity, Humiliation, Shame and a Broken Egg,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 44:7 (2012): 710–720; Peter Boghossian, “Socratic Pedagogy, Race, and Power: From People to Propositions,” Education Policy Analysis Archives 10:3. Retrieved on November 15, 2016 from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n3.html. See also Anthony G. Rud, Jr., “The Use and Abuse of Socrates in Present Day Teaching,” Education Policy Analysis Archives 5:20. Retrieved on November 15, 2016 from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v5n20.html. For a critique of Socratic Method‚ see Jacques Rancière, The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation, trans. Ross (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991), pp. 29, 59.

  10. 10.

    Many college and university administrators also indirectly embrace Socrates via their defense of “active learning.” On the connection between Socratic Method and active learning‚ see Christian Riffel, “The Socratic Method Reloaded: How to Make It Work in Large Classes?” Canterbury Law Review, 2014.

  11. 11.

    See Lani Guinier, Michelle Fine, and Jane Balin, Becoming Gentlemen: Women, Law School, and Institutional Change (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1997), p. 13.

  12. 12.

    For the trans-historical value of Socrates, see Nicholas Tampio, “What if the Pious Don’t Want to Deliberate?” Political Theory 42:1 (2014): 106–118.

  13. 13.

    My critique of Socrates is primarily based on Plato’s “Apology” in Plato, The Last Days of Socrates, trans. Tredennick and Tarrant (New York, NY: Penguin, 2003).

  14. 14.

    Plato, “Apology,” p. 45. I privilege Plato’s “Apology” because, as Werner Jaeger puts it, this text is a description of the essence of the work of Socrates in the shortest and plainest form; see Jaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, vol. 2, p. 37.

  15. 15.

    Plato, “Apology,” p. 65.

  16. 16.

    Plato, “Apology,” p. 68.

  17. 17.

    For Socrates as a model philosopher‚ see Dana Villa, Socratic Citizenship (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001). For Socrates as a model for living‚ see Alexander Nehamas, The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000). For Socrates as an advocate of active as opposed to passive learning‚ see Martha Nussbaum, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010).

  18. 18.

    For the complications involved with Socrates, see Gregory Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991).

  19. 19.

    For a variety of ways to interpret and practice Socratic education‚ see Jordan Fuller, “‘Listen Then, or Rather, Answer’: Contemporary Challenges to Socratic Education,” Educational Theory 65:1 (2015): 53–71. See also Peter Boghossian, “The Socratic Method (or, Having a Right to Get Stoned),” Teaching Philosophy 25:4 (December 2002).

  20. 20.

    This is especially the case in Plato’s, Republic, trans. Grube and Reeve (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Press, 1992).

  21. 21.

    As Guinar et al. put it, “Socratic method is employed to intimidate or to establish a hierarchy within large classes” (p. 50).

  22. 22.

    Plato, Gorgias, trans. Walter Hamilton and Chris Emlyn-Jones (New York: Penguin, 2004), 471d.

  23. 23.

    For embarrassment (e.g. Thrasymachus blushing) and then silence resulting from an encounter with Socrates, see Book I of Plato’s Republic, trans. Grube and Reeve (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Press, 1992). See also the exchanges between Socrates, Polus and Callicles in Plato’s Gorgias, trans. Hamilton and Emlyn-Jones (New York, NY: Penguin, 2004), 471d. For related themes‚ see Peter Boghossian, “Socratic Pedagogy: Perplexity, Humiliation, Shame and a Broken Egg,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 44:7 (2012).

  24. 24.

    For a defense of compassion as a mode of pedagogy‚ see Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (New York, NY: Free Press, 2010). For a defense of the modesty intrinsic to Socratic Method‚ see Theodore Christou, “Satan or Socrates: The Perils of Excessive Pride in Pedagogy,” Encounters in Education 9 (Fall 2008): 175–181.

  25. 25.

    Mr. Brett Kavanaugh was arguably more belligerent during his hearing than was Socrates.

  26. 26.

    Plato, Apology, p. 68.

  27. 27.

    See Plato, “Crito,” in Plato: The Last Days of Socrates, trans. Tredennick and Tarrant (New York, NY: Penguin, 2003).

  28. 28.

    Plato, “Apology,” p. 40.

  29. 29.

    Plato, “Apology,” p. 39.

  30. 30.

    See Villa, Socratic Citizenship, 2001, p. 4.

  31. 31.

    Plato, “Apology,” p. 39.

  32. 32.

    On the benefits of a culturally relevant curriculum‚ see Tyrone C. Howard, “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Ingredients for Critical Teacher Reflection,” Theory into Practice 42:3 (2003). See also Gloria Ladson-Billings, “Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” American Educational Research Journal 32:3 (1995): 465–491; Barry A. Osborne, “Practice into Theory into Practice: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for Students We Have Marginalized and Normalized,” Anthropology & Education Quarterly 27:3 (1996): 285–414. For Boghossian’s claim‚ see “The Socratic Method (or, Having a Right to Get Stoned),” Teaching Philosophy 25:4 (2002): 355.

  33. 33.

    For the displacement of listening as a democratic practice‚ see Susan Bickford, The Dissonance of Democracy: Listening, Conflict, Citizenship (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996).

  34. 34.

    Peter Boghossian, “The Socratic Method (or, Having a Right to Get Stoned),” Teaching Philosophy 25:4 (December 2002): 352.

  35. 35.

    See Guinier et al., p. 60. For Boghossian, “race and gender play less a role in a Socratic discourse” in comparison to other dialogical contexts. See Boghossian, “Socratic Pedagogy, Race, and Power: From People to Propositions,” Education Policy Analysis Archives 10:3 (January 2002): 3.

  36. 36.

    See Amanda Carlin, “The Courtroom as White Space: Racial Performance as Noncredibility,” UCLA Law Review 450 (2016). For Carlin, “women of color are at the bottom of the credibility hierarchy” (p. 476).

  37. 37.

    Peter Boghossian, “The Socratic Method (or, Having a Right to Get Stoned),” Teaching Philosophy 25:4 (2002): 355.

  38. 38.

    See Lynn M. Sanders, “Against Deliberation,” Political Theory 25:3 (1997): 354.

  39. 39.

    See Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge, Intersectionality (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2016), p. 165.

  40. 40.

    In Plato’s Symposium, Alcibiades compares the impact of Socrates to a reptile bite. In Plato’s “Apology,” Socrates compares himself to a stinging fly.

  41. 41.

    See Soren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Irony: With Continual Reference to Socrates, ed. and trans. Hong and Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 45.

  42. 42.

    For Peter Boghossian, “Socratic pedagogy confuses, and to an extent even inverts traditional power relations” in Boghossian, “Socratic Pedagogy, Race, and Power: From People to Propositions,” Education Policy Analysis Archives 10:3 (January 2002): 4.

  43. 43.

    See Daniel Pekarsky, “Socratic Teaching: A Critical Assessment,” Journal of Moral Education 23:2 (1994): 10.

  44. 44.

    See, in particular, Gorgias 497c, 501c, and 505d: “I don’t understand your quibbles, Socrates.” “Oh yes, you do, Callicles; only it suits you to feign ignorance.” See also Plato’s Republic, Book 1, where Thrasymachus is reduced to silence.

  45. 45.

    Jacques Rancière states: “The Socratic method represents the most formidable form of stultification. The Socratic method of interrogation that pretends to lead the student to his own knowledge is in fact the method of a riding-school master”; see The Ignorant Schoolmaster, 1991, p. 59.

  46. 46.

    See Sanders, “Against Deliberation,” 1997.

  47. 47.

    For Guinier et al., “Many women and people of color are reluctant partners in the Socratic exchange” (p. 91).

  48. 48.

    Plato, “Apology,” p. 44.

  49. 49.

    See David D. Corey, “Socratic Citizenship and the Divine Sign,” The Review of Politics 67 (Spring 2005): 228.

  50. 50.

    Plato, “Apology,” p. 45.

  51. 51.

    Plato, Republic, trans. Grube and Reeve (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Press, 1992), 539a–c.

  52. 52.

    Plato, “Apology,” p. 57.

  53. 53.

    For the political significance of epistemological assumptions‚ see João Paraskeva, Conflicts in Curriculum Theory: Challenging Hegemonic Epistemologies (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

  54. 54.

    For a defense of Socratic ideals, see Nicholas Tampio, “What if the Pious Don’t Want to Deliberate?” Political Theory 42:1 (2014): 106–118.

  55. 55.

    Friedrich Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1967), p. 96.

  56. 56.

    On these and related themes‚ see Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977, ed. Gordon, trans. Gordon et al. (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1980). See Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge, trans. Wirth and Shils (New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc., 1936); Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, trans. Kaufmann and Hollingdale (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1989).

  57. 57.

    Plato, The Republic, pp. 264–292.

  58. 58.

    Rancière, 1991, p. 27.

  59. 59.

    For data on the changing demographic of university students‚ see William J. Hussar and Tabitha M. Bailey, Projections of Education Statistics to 2021 (NCES 2013-008). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (Washington, DC: U.S., 2013). Government Printing Office. This report projects significant increases in African-American and Latino/a student college enrollment (25 and 40%) while enrollment for white students will slightly increase (4%).

  60. 60.

    Peter Boghossian, “Socratic Pedagogy, Race, and Power: From People to Propositions,” Education Policy Analysis Archives 10:3 (January 2002): 2.

  61. 61.

    See Jerome Karabel, The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005).

  62. 62.

    See recent feminist critiques of Socratic Method including Susan H. Williams, “Legal Education, Feminist Epistemology, and the Socratic Method,” Stanford Law Review 45 (1993): 1571–1576; Lani Guinier, Michelle Fine, and Jane Balin, Becoming Gentlemen: Women, Law School, and Institutional Change (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1997). See also David D. Garmer, “Socratic Misogyny? Analyzing Feminist Criticisms of Socratic Teaching in Legal Education,” BYU Law Review 4 (2000): 1579–1650.

  63. 63.

    Dana Villa, Socratic Citizenship (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001).

  64. 64.

    See Benjamin Barber, An Aristocracy of Everyone: The Politics of Education and the Future of America (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992), p. 186.

  65. 65.

    For these and related themes‚ see Victor M. Rios, Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2011). See also Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1976). See Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1992).

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    William W. Sokoloff

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Sokoloff, W.W. (2020). Against the Socratic Method. In: Political Science Pedagogy. Critical Political Theory and Radical Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23831-5_3

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