THE

SOCRATI
C
METHOD
An exercise
in dialectics
 Before turning a philosopher, Socrates
took up masonry and sculpting as his
profession for several years.

Xanthippe was Socrates’ wife. the two had

three children by the names Menexenus,
Sophroniscus and Lamprocles.
 Socrates (470-399 BC) was a Greek philosopher
who, despite being considered one of the greatest
and most important philosophers who ever lived,
left no writings at all. He lived during a period of
transition in the Greek empire, and after the
Peloponnesian War, he was tried, convicted, and
executed for corrupting the young.
WHAT IS SOCRATIC
METHOD?
The Socratic method, also known as Socratic
debate, is a form of cooperative argumentative
dialogue between individuals, based on asking
and answering questions to stimulate 
critical thinking and to draw out ideas and
underlying presumptions.
It is a dialectical method, often involving
a discussion in which the defense of one
point of view is questioned; one
participant may lead another to contradict
themselves in some way, thus weakening
the defender's point.
 Dialectic or dialectics (Greek: διαλεκτική, dialektikḗ), is a 
dialogue between two or more people holding different points of view about
a subject but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned arguments.

The term dialectic is not synonymous with the term debate. While in theory

debaters are not necessarily emotionally invested in their point of view, in
practice debaters frequently display an emotional commitment that may
cloud rational judgment.
 Socrates engaged in questioning of his students
in an unending search for truth. He sought to get
to the foundations of his students' and
colleagues' views by asking continual questions
until a contradiction was exposed, thus proving
the fallacy of the initial assumption. This
became known as the Socratic Method, and may
be Socrates' most enduring contribution to
philosophy.
The Socratic method is a
way to seek truths by your
own lights. 
 What is the Socratic Method?
The Socratic Method is…
The search for truth
Discussion

And above all

Questioning
Questioning
Questioning
 DEFINING SOCRATIC
QUESTIONING:
Socratic questioning is disciplined
questioning that can be used to explore
thought in many directions and for many
purposes.
 to explore complex ideas
 to get to the truth of things
 to open up issues and problems
 to uncover assumptions
 to analyze concepts
 to distinguish what we know from what we
don’t know, and
 to follow out logical implications of
thought
 The 1973 movie The Paper Chase, the very mention of
the Socratic Method strikes fear in the hearts of those
considering attending law school. Students discover
quickly that the Socratic Method is a tool and a good one
at that used to engage a large group of students in a
discussion, while using probing questions to get at the
heart of the subject matter. It is to develop critical
thinking skills in students and enable them to approach
the law as intellectuals.
IT MAY OR MAY NOT BE
SELF-DIRECTED. AND IT
IS USUALLY DONE
ORALLY, RATHER THAN
IN WRITTEN FORM
 SOCRATES THOUGHT THAT
PEOPLE LEARNED BEST, NOT
BY BEING TOLD WHAT TO
BELIEVE OR DO, BUT BY
BEING GUIDED THROUGH
QUESTIONING TO WHAT
MADE MOST SENSE TO
BELIEVE OR DO.
 THINKING IS DRIVEN
BY QUESTIONS.
no questions
means
no understanding
 METHOD
OF
SYSTEMATI
C DOUBT
An exercise in
skepticism
Philosopher and mathematician René
Descartes is regarded as the father of
modern philosophy for defining a
starting point for existence, “I think;
therefore I am.”
The basic strategy of Descartes's method of doubt is
to defeat skepticism on its own ground. Begin by
doubting the truth of everything—not only the 
evidence of the senses, but even the fundamental
process of reasoning itself. If any particular truth
about the world can survive this extreme skeptical
challenge, then it must be truly indubitable and
therefore a perfectly certain foundation for
knowledge.
SKEPTICISM
Belief that some or all human knowledge is
impossible. Since even our best methods for
learning about the world sometimes fall short
of perfect certainty, skeptics argue, it is better
to suspend belief than to rely on the dubitable
products of reason
 THREE DISTINCT LEVELS
IN DOUBTING
EVERYTHING IN THAT
YOU BELIEVE,
1. Method of doubt
2. I am, I exist
3. I am a thinking thing
1. METHOD OF
DOUBT
A. PERCEPTUAL ILLUSION
Things are not always just as they
seem at first glance (or at first
hearing, etc.) to be. Our senses do
not create certainty.
He began his proof for the existence of the self
by doubting everything that could be doubted.
(ex: you can doubt your parents, if they really
your parents; or your brothers and sisters, if
you are really related by blood; or even the
existence of the things in the room, if nobody
is there to perceive them.) you can even doubt
your own doubt.
B. THE DREAM PROBLEM

There is a very thin line between

dreaming state and waking state
C. A deceiving god

What if there is an evil

genius deceiving us.
You can still be sure and certain
about one thing, that you are
doubting. Doubting is a form of
thinking. Thinking could not be
happen in a vacuum. There must
be the owner of this thoughts.
IS RENE DESCARTES
A SKEPTIC?
2. I AM, I EXIST
Proof that we cannot doubt our own
existence:

“I cannot doubt that I doubt,

Therefore I think.
Because I think,
I cannot doubt that I exist”
 Therefore, thinking implies that you exist
as a substance. You would be contradicting
yourself if you doubt that you exist, at the
very moment that you are doubting. As a
result, the self-exist at the very act of
doubting, which is a form of thinking. Or in
other words, cogito, ergo, sum or I think,
therefore I am.
3. I AM A THINKING
THING
 DID GOD EXIST?
Proof that God exist:
“ I as a thinking being has
imperfection, the idea of perfect
cannot simple by me because I am
imperfect.
This prove that God exist.”
Descartes concluded that
"sum res cogitans"
("I am a thing that
thinks").
DESCARTES PROVE
THAT SKEPTICS ARE
WRONG
In Descartes's terms, I am a substance whose
inseparable attribute (or entire essence) is thought, with
all its modes: doubting, willing, conceiving, believing,
etc.
What I really am is a mind or soul. So completely am I
identified with my conscious awareness, Descartes
claimed, that if I were to stop thinking altogether, it
would follow that I no longer existed at all. At this
point, nothing else about human nature can be
determined with such perfect certainty.
This process of doubting or a
little amount of skepticism
would later on leave us with a
very important life lesson.
That is, of never accepting the truth of
any statement or belief without adequate
evidence for it.