Questioning someone incessantly until they contradict themselves is not a recipe for popularity. This book is for those coming to philosophy the way Socrates did-as the everyday activity of making sense out of life and how to live it-and for anyone who wants to know what he said about doing that better. With Farnsworth as your guide, the ideas of Socrates are easier to understand than ever and accessible to anyone.Īs Farnsworth achieved with The Practicing Stoic and the Farnsworth's Classical English series, ideas of old are made new and vital again. It is a route to wisdom and a way of thinking about wisdom. Socratic philosophy is still startling after all these years because it is an approach to asking hard questions and chasing after them. Chapters include Question and Answer, Ignorance, The Socratic Classroom, and Socrates and the Stoics.

It is an aid to better thinking, and a remedy for bad habits of mind, whether in law, politics, the classroom, or tackling life's big questions at the kitchen table.ĭrawing on hundreds of quotations, this book explains what the Socratic method is and how to use it. More than a technique, the method is an ethic of patience, inquiry, humility, and doubt.

This is the Socratic method-one of humanity's great achievements. The way Socrates asks questions, and the reasons why, amount to a whole way of thinking. Easy to grasp yet challenging to master, the method will change the way you think about life's big questions.Ībout 2,500 years ago, Plato wrote a set of dialogues that depict Socrates in conversation. Ward Farnsworth explains what the Socratic method is, how it works, and why it matters more than ever in our time.

A thinking person's guide to a better life.

The practicing stoic farnsworth