Does Socrates have a method? : rethinking the elenchus in Plato's Dialogues and beyond / edited by Gary Alan Scott.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Scott, Gary Alan, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Socrates.

Methodology--History.

Methodology.

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 327 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, [2002]

Summary:

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 they 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.

Contents:

Part 1 Historical Origins of Socratic Method

1 Parmenidean Elenchos / James H. Lesher 19

2 Forensic Characteristics of Socratic Argumentation / Hayden W. Ausland 36

3 Elenchos and Exetasis: Capturing the Purpose of Socratic Interrogation / Harold Tarrant 61

4 Comments on Lesher, Ausland, and Tarrant / Charles M. Young 78

Part 2 Reexamining Vlastos's Analysis of "the Elenchus"

5 Variety of Socratic Elenchi / Michelle Carpenter, Ronald M. Polansky 89

6 Problems with Socratic Method / Hugh H. Benson 101

7 Elenctic Interpretation and the Delphic Oracle / Mark McPherran 114

8 The Socratic Elenchos? / Thomas C. Brickhouse, Nicholas D. Smith 145

Part 3 Socratic Argumentation and Interrogation in Specific Dialogues

A. Clitophon, Euthydemus, Lysis, Philebus

9 The Socratic Elenchus as Constructive Protreptic / Francisco J. Gonzalez 161

10 Humbling as Upbringing: The Ethical Dimension of the Elenchus in the Lysis / Francois Renaud 183

11 The (De)construction of Irrefutable Argument in Plato's Philebus / P. Christopher Smith 199

12 Elenchos, Protreptic, and Platonic Philosophizing / Lloyd P. Gerson 217

B. Four Interpretations of Elenchus in the Charmides

13 Socratic Dialectic in the Charmides / W. Thomas Schmid 235

14 The Elenchos in the Charmides, 162-175 / Gerald A. Press 252

15 Certainty and Consistency in the Socratic Elenchus / John M. Carvalho 266

16 Questioning the Self: A Reaction to Carvalho, Press, and Schmid / Joanne B. Waugh 281.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-318) and index.

ISBN:

027102173X

OCLC:

46976602