The Socratic Method: The Art of Asking Questions about the World and Oneself

The book by an American legal scholar is devoted to the Socratic dialogue — one of the effective and tested tools for constructing proper reasoning — left to us by ancient philosophy. In the author's interpretation, the Socratic method is contrasted with thoughtless and superficial rendering of categorical judgments, which is stimulated by modern internet communication. "If I had to express in one word the antithesis of the Socratic method, I would use the word 'Twitter,'" writes Ward Farnsworth. At the center of his criticism is the inability of modern individuals, globally, to think critically and independently, questioning assessments and opinions that are sanctified by tradition, supported by habit, or imposed by authority. It is this inability to think in a Socratic manner that is depicted in the book as the underlying cause of "all the madness of ignorance and hypocrisy that characterizes the current political discourse."