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Socratic method

noun

the use of questions, as employed by Socrates, to develop a latent idea, as in the mind of a pupil, or to elicit admissions, as from an opponent, tending to establish a proposition.

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Origin:
1735–45

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

Socratic method

—n
	philosophy Compare maieutic the method of instruction by question and answer used by Socrates in order to elicit from his pupils truths he considered to be implicitly known by all rational beings

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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"The double nature of the comic hero is symbolized in these two: Falstaff and Socrates. They are of opposite disposition, yet not so unlike as we might think. The essential character of the eiron is incarnate in Socrates, who was "ignorant" and who also had the disposition of the "buffoon" or "fool," the features of the comic spirit itself, the coarse, ugly mask of the satyr or clown. The Socratic method is a tactic of winning victory by professing ignorance, by merely asking questions of the "imposters," the so-called "wise" men of Athens.... We must remember that Falstaff the buffoon and imposter used the same sort of interrogation Socrates the ironist used. He asks the same sort of question: What is honor? Socrates asked: What is justice? Socrates, like Falstaff, is both ironist and buffoon; he is the questioner using a philosophic buffoonery to seek the truth.... He has a double or triple character, for he is, as Falstaff was, both victor and victim—a victim, eventually, of the unthinking Athenians who refused to have their creed unsettled. He was finally condemned to drink the hemlock because he asked too many impious questions. And Falstaff is rejected by King Hal."

-Wylie Sypher

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