The Socratic Method

A Practitioner’s Handbook

A thinking persons guide to a better life. Ward Farnsworth explains what the Socratic method is, how it works, and why it matters more than ever in our time. Easy to grasp yet challenging to master, the method will change the way you think about lifes big questions. A wonderful book.Rebecca Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex.

About 2,500 years ago, Plato wrote a set of dialogues that depict Socrates in conversation. The way Socrates asks questions, and the reasons why, amount to a whole way of thinking. This is the Socratic methodone of humanitys great achievements. More than a technique, the method is an ethic of patience, inquiry, humility, and doubt. It is an aid to better thinking, and a remedy for bad habits of mind, whether in law, politics, the classroom, or tackling lifes big questions at the kitchen table.

Drawing on hundreds of quotations, this book explains w