Review: “The Socratic Method” – By Farnsworth

August 27, 2022

Review: The Socratic Method
By Ward Farnsworth

Many months ago, I decided I needed to get into some classic books that I had never read in school.
One such book was “The Republic” by Plato.
Well, that didn’t last long. I was overwhelmed by the archaic language and ancient Greek names.
I can be pretty thick sometimes, and it just didn’t click with me.

But I didn’t want to give up, so I got a copy of “The Socratic Method – A Practitioner’s Handbook”.
“The Republic” consists of long conversations and arguments that describe “The Socratic Method”.
The Socratic Method” was a good primer for me, and I have a better understanding of where Plato was trying to go with “The Republic”.

The author, Ward Farnsworth, is Dean of the law school at the University of Texas, and you can see how this critical thinking method would be used in a court of law.

I don’t pretend to completely understand everything about the Socratic method (named after Socrates, who -allegedly- was forced to kill himself by drinking poison).
What the book gave me was a road map to the method, which basically consists of questioning and agreeing on parts of an argument between parties, finally reaching some kind of consensus.

Farnsworth lays out the basic parameters of creating useful arguments, one of the key tools being “the Elenchus”, loosely described as “refutation and cross-examination”.
He patiently shows us various building blocks for this classical method of thought, culminating in chapters on the Stoics and the Skeptics – legacy methods practiced today – and “Finding and Testing Principles”.

As the subtitle suggests, this is “A Practitioners Handbook”. This type of thinking and dialogue requires practice and considerable meditation. I certainly haven’t reached this skill yet, but the book will be there for me to consult and consider.

Most of my philosophic study in the past revolved around Taoist thought related to martial arts training, but after reading “The Socratic Method”, I picked up a copy of “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome in A.D. 161.
At some point, I will try to tackle Plato’s “The Republic” again.

All-in-all, “The Socratic Method” has given me a new way to approach conflicts in discussion, even in self-thought.
It’s going to be a long haul, but I’m off to a good start.

– John Titus

Tags: , , , , ,

One Response to Review: “The Socratic Method” – By Farnsworth

  1. Tex Renegade on September 19, 2022 at 2:13 pm

    I’m glad I am not the only one who has trouble slogging through “the classics.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RSS Northwest Research & Covert Book Report

  • Review: Killers Of The Flower Moon
    Soon to be a major motion picture, this story has some real promise. Promise to help solve age-old crimes, promise to resolve inhuman atrocities, promise to help make things right. This is the promise of “Killers Of The Flower Moon – The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI”, by David Grann. Sadly, it […]
  • Review: Pandora’s Gamble, By Alison Young
    Review: Pandora’s Gamble Where do I begin with this startling and disturbing book? First, the author, Alison Young, worked as a reporter for USA Today, the Detroit Free Press, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and has won numerous awards for her investigative reporting. “Pandora’s Gamble” is subtitled “Lab Leaks, Pandemics, And A World At Risk”. Much […]
  • Review: Floating Stones – Great Pyramid Built With Water Power
    Now here is an interesting find, recommended by a good friend. This book is a very thought-provoking theory of how the Great Pyramid was built. Authors Samuel R. Sampson is an architect, and co-author Michael N. Read is an engineer. Together they have come up with a very plausible scenario on how the largest Egyptian […]
  • Review: “The Dawn Of Everything”
    In my recent study of ancient civilizations, I bought this huge book – “The Dawn Of Everything – A New History Of Humanity”, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This was a completely different type of read for me; Graeber and Wengrow are anthropologists and archeologists, and write as such. I don’t know a lot […]
  • Review Of Two Books On Neanderthals
    After reading Hancock and Schoch describing the destruction and survival of the human population during the last Ice Age, I wanted to learn more about the development of primitive man. Mind you, Hancock believed the destruction was caused by a comet that broke apart and hit the earth, while Schoch has evidence that the destruction […]