SOCRATIC METHOD

• The Socratic method comes from Socrates, the famous Greek Philosopher who roamed on the streets of Athens asking questions to people about various statements they made, his style of questioning came to be known as the Socratic Method of Questioning

• For example, if a guy will come to Socrates and say the statement " I Love Zeus", some of the Socratic questions that Socrates will throw at him will be :

1. Who is Zeus?

2. Why do you love him?

3. What do you understand by the word Love?

4. Are there other gods to be loved?

5. Why should we love Gods?

6. If we don't love them what will happen?

7. How we even became aware that gods exist?

8. Have you seen them?

9. If not why do you believe in them?

10. Why should I believe in your belief?

And the list just goes on and on, the reason for Socrates to ask these questions is not to negate or establish superiority over the other person but to clear his thinking process and to make it more refined and logical

• Socrates used to say that he's like a midwife delivering a thought in a better manner like a child is delivered. His only concern is that we as humans start thinking about the statements we make to go into a deeper level of awareness, understanding & clarity of thought

• If you will see carefully the questions that Socrates is asking revolves around another way of Critical Reasoning & Thinking that we as coaches use a lot while probing a subject called 5 Wives & 1 Husband where Wives are What, When, Where, Why, Whom & 1 Husband the How.

• So in a nutshell Socratic Method helps us to Critically Reason and Think, nowadays scholars have converted the method into 5R's:

1. Receive: Listen & Receive the information

2. Reflect: Reflect on the content that you heard & received to form your own comprehension, interpretation & understanding

3. Refine: Refine the statements as per your logic & understanding

4. Restate: Summarise & Paraphrase the statement to create a deeper understanding

5. Repeat: If the logical fallacy still remains repeat the above steps till clarity is not drawn

• Socratic Method is used in a lot of Law Schools to train students in the use of Rhetoric & Critical Reasoning & Thinking. Navigate through the movie "The Paperchase" 1973 where there's a scene from Harvard Law School where the professor is using The Socratic Method.

Lemme know your thoughts, Happy Learning :)