The SFCP aims to promote the Critical Philosophy through the linked activities of education and scholarship.

Charity No

A DIALOGUE ON THE SOCRATIC DIALOGUE

In three instalments by Fernando Leal and Rene Saran.

(Text with appendices on 'Aims, Procedures & Rules' and a brief literature survey. SFCP 2005, pp32)

Available as an email attachment from: keith.martin18@btinternet.com or as a hard copy from Rene Saran 22 Kings Gardens London NW6 4PU, UK

We chose the dialogue form for this article in an attempt to make our exposition of the Socratic Dialogue more lively and accessible, especially to newcomers. Writing a dialogue is a very difficult endeavour because Plato's dialogues have been and are a model which no-one has managed to match. Plato was one of the greatest poets in Western literature. Our readers should be indulgent towards us and bear in mind that we ourselves are fully aware that we cannot compete with Plato.

In our little dialogue we set out to introduce a new first-time participant, Anna, to what participation in the Socratic Dialogue has to offer. Anna has just arrived at a residential centre where several groups are going to engage in Socratic Dialogue for five days; she is apprehensive, doubtful about her own capacity, and during the first evening gets into conversation with Fernando and Rene.

The Dialogue

Anna: Hi folks, I am Anna. Some friends of mine told me you two know so much about the Socratic Dialogue. I have so many questions-may I join you?

Fernando: Please do.

Rene: Fire ahead.

Anna: First of all, what makes the Socratic Dialogue distinctive?

Fernando: Like everything humans have invented, the Socratic Dialogue develops and changes. You Anna know business, so you'll understand that business today is different from what it used to be. Even at the same point in time, business in different cultures (for example Japanese compared with European) has different characteristics.

Rene: But I think we must identify something central and abiding in Socratic Dialogue which characterises it. A Socratic Dialogue can happen at any time between two or more people when they seek to answer a question

Anna: But here on this course we have the choice between a few questions. What do you mean, then, it could be any question?

Rene: Not any type of question. For example, not one about empirical knowledge; it has to be a philosophical ethical question, or a mathematical one or one about the theory of knowledge. This is the case because it has to be answerable by our own effort of reflection and thinking.

Fernando: As far as I am concerned any question can be approached with this method.

Anna: So the two of you disagree over that point. I am really confused now. How on earth were the questions chosen for this course?

Rene: Facilitators tend to discuss the suitability of questions with each other. Both in Germany and in Holland facilitators get together to brain storm the suitability of questions as well as other aspects of the Socratic method. To give you a personal example, when I facilitated my first Socratic Dialogue, I wanted to be sure to take a question on which I felt the necessary confidence, because being a facilitator is no easy task. As various aspects of education had interested me for a long time, the whole topic of relations between students and teachers and the question of discipline concerned me. So I chose a question about that which asked: Do teachers have the right and/or the duty to discipline their students?

Anna: How did that dialogue develop? It sounds interesting.

Fernando: Yes, it was fascinating

Anna: How do you know, were you there or has Rene told you about it?

Fernando: I was a participant in that group.

Anna: So how was it then?

Rene: I remember the example well. We always start from the concrete -choosing an example of real life experience as told by one of the participants. Choosing the best example can be difficult for the group. Once selected, participants ask all sorts of questions and the details of the example are fleshed out.

Anna: That sounds almost like gossip!

Fernando: Perhaps there's an element of that! But in the Socratic Dialogue the example and its details are a kind of platform for reaching more general judgments about different ethical aspects of our lives.

Find out the rest of the dialogue ...

click here to contact us for a copy.