Does Socrates Have a Method?: Rethinking the Elenchus in Plato's Dialogues and Beyond

Published by Penn State University Press 2002

Does Socrates Have a Method?

Rethinking the Elenchus in Plato's Dialogues and Beyond

Edited by: Gary Alan Scott

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271032214

Overview
Contents

About this book

Although "the Socratic method" is commonly understood as a style of pedagogy involving cross-questioning between teacher and student, there has long been debate among scholars of ancient philosophy about how this method as attributed to Socrates should be defined or, indeed, whether Socrates can be said to have used any single, uniform method at all distinctive to his way of philosophizing. This volume brings together essays by classicists and philosophers examining this controversy anew.

The point of departure for many of those engaged in the debate has been the identification of Socratic method with "the elenchus" as a technique of logical argumentation aimed at refuting an interlocutor, which Gregory Vlastos highlighted in an influential article in 1983. The essays in this volume look again at many of the issues to which Vlastos drew attention but also seek to broaden the discussion well beyond the limits of his formulation.

Some contributors question the suitability of the elenchus as a general description of how Socrates engages his interlocutors; others trace the historical origins of the kinds of argumentation Socrates employs; others explore methods in addition to the elenchus that Socrates uses; several propose new ways of thinking about Socratic practices. Eight essays focus on specific dialogues, each examining why Plato has Socrates use the particular methods he does in the context defined by the dialogue. Overall, representing a wide range of approaches in Platonic scholarship, the volume aims to enliven and reorient the debate over Socratic method so as to set a new agenda for future research.

Contributors are Hayden W. Ausland, Hugh H. Benson, Thomas C. Brickhouse, Michelle Carpenter, John M. Carvalho, Lloyd P. Gerson, Francisco J. Gonzalez, James H. Lesher, Mark McPherran, Ronald M. Polansky, Gerald A. Press, François Renaud, and W. Thomas Schmid, Nicholas D. Smith, P. Christopher Smith, Harold Tarrant, Joanne B. Waugh, and Charles M. Young.

Author / Editor information

Scott Gary Alan :

Gary Alan Scott is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola College in Maryland.

Reviews

“Despite their variations in topic and approach, the essays are uniformly excellent.”
—D.H. Calhoun, Choice

“The fact that each interpreter is able to lend insight into one or another dimension of Platonic thinking without ever establishing anything like a definitive account of the Socratic method speaks well of both the genius of Plato and the construction of this collection of essays.”
—Christopher P. Long, Review of Metaphysics

“Although Gregory Vlastos seemed to have framed the terms for all discussions of Socrates, this volume by Gary Alan Scott shows how many questions remain unanswered. It recuperates the initial power of Socratic questioning, endlessly rebellious to all scholarship.”
—Michel Narcy, Directeur de recherche CNRS, Co-directeur de "Philosophie antique"

“The result is a refreshing change of focus that challenges commonly held assumptions about Socrates’ method of question and answer. . . . The authors of the collected essays have succeeded admirably in reexamining a notion that most Platonic (and non-Platonic) scholars blithely employ and in emphasizing some hitherto unexplored aspects of the Socratic elenchos, thereby deepening our understanding of its nature and function.”
—Zina Giannopoulou, Ancient Philosophy

“Scott’s anthology recognizes both the critical attention that Vlastos’s interpretation received and his powerful impact on how certain issues of Socratic method have been discussed, and continue to be discussed, by Plato scholars. . . . As Scott notes, there is a deliberate effort by most contributors to break with the tradition, and rethink old assumptions about the Socratic method associated with Vlastos’s model. The current lack of consensus between scholars seems to be a desirable effect because it expands and stimulates discussion, especially about what terms one ought to use in talking about Socratic method.”
—Rebecca Bensen, Journal of the History of Philosophy

“This book puts philosophers and classicists who disagree over methodology in Platonic scholarship in direct ‘conversation’ with one another in a single volume. That makes this collection of essays attractive to a broad range of scholars, regardless of where they might place themselves on the issue. It has the further virtue of focusing on a single issue.”
—Jill Gordon, Colby College

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Abbreviations for Plato’s Dialogues Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Contributors Gary Scott Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One: Historical Origins of Socratic Method
1 Parmenidean Elenchos James Lesher Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
2 Forensic Characteristics of Socratic Argumentation Hayden Ausland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
3 Elenchos and Exetasis: Capturing the Purpose of Socratic Interrogation Harold Tarrant Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
4 Comments on Lesher, Ausland, and Tarrant Charles Young Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
Part Two: Reexamining Vlastos’s Analysis of “the Elenchus”
5 Variety of Socratic Elenchi Michelle Carpenter and Ronald Polansky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
6 Problems with Socratic Method Hugh Benson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
7 Elenctic Interpretation and the Delphic Oracle Mark McPherran Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
8 The Socratic Elenchos? Thomas Brickhouse and Nicholas Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Part Three: Socratic Argumentation and Interrogation in Specific Dialogues
A. Clitophon, Euthydemus, Lysis, Philebus
9 The Socratic Elenchus as Constructive Protreptic Francisco Gonzalez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
10 Humbling as Upbringing: The Ethical Dimension of the Elenchus in the Lysis François Renaud Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
11 The (De)construction of Irrefutable Argument in Plato’s Philebus P. Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
12 Elenchos, Protreptic, and Platonic Philosophizing Lloyd Gerson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
B. Four Interpretations of Elenchus in the Charmides
13 Socratic Dialectic in the Charmides W. Schmid Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
14 The Elenchos in the Charmides, 162–175 Gerald Press Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	252
15 Certainty and Consistency in the Socratic Elenchus John Carvalho Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	266
16 Questioning the Self: A Reaction to Carvalho, Press, and Schmid Joanne Waugh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
About the Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 344
Keywords: Gary Alan Scott; Philosophy; Greek; History; Socratic method; pedagogy; cross-questioning; teacher; student; philosophizing; classicists; logical argumentation; interlocutor; Gregory Vlastos; historical origins

eBook

Published: February 22, 2002
ISBN: 9780271032214