Method
Socratic Elenchus
Classification
- Method family
- Dialogical
- Domains
- Epistemology, Ethics
Overview
Socratic elenchus tests an interlocutor's claim through questions that draw out its commitments and expose inconsistency among the answers.
Purpose. The method examines whether a proposed definition or ethical belief can be held consistently and often reveals that further inquiry is needed. It does not guarantee a final doctrine and is more precise than the many later teaching practices called “Socratic method.”
Characteristic operations
- Elicit a claim: Ask the interlocutor to state a definition or belief they endorse.
- Secure related commitments: Use questions to establish further premises the interlocutor accepts.
- Derive a conflict: Show that those commitments contradict the original claim or one another.
- Revise and continue: Withdraw or refine the failed proposal and test the new account.
Used by traditions
Applied to questions
Later developments
References
- Plato, early dialogues (elenctic method)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Socrates
- Plato, Republic I, 331c–336a (testing proposed definitions of justice)