Socratic method is more than a technique: it requires a range of devices to access the motivations of
students so they can become active learners.
For the second section, the Socratic method is compared with other philosophical and ped-
agogical approaches of teaching and learning. Steven F. McGuire compares Socrates’and Kant’s
understandings of recollection and the role it plays in their educational philosophies. In“The
Americanization of the Socratic Method,”Andrew Bibby shows that the Socratic method adopted
at the time of the American Founding was transformed into a mode of individual criticalthinking
and self-expression. David W. Livingstone explains in“The Socratic Method and John Dewey”
how the Socratic method is sometimes incorrectly equated to Dewey’s discovery of learning.
Finally, Jordon B. Barkalow investigates the Socratic method as an alternative to student-centered
learning in his chapter,“The Courage of the Socratic Method.”
The final section explores some of the practical concerns and challenges of teaching the
Socratic method in the classroom. In“No Guru, No Method, No Teacher”Sean Steel argues
that the Socratic method as a technique is indistinguishable from that of the sophists and that the
real difference lies in the motivations of the teacher. Rebecca LeMoine examines whether the
Socratic method is culturallyimperialistic,particularly in multicultural classrooms inher chapter,
“Is Socrates Culturally Imperialistic?”Paul Corey in“The Socratic Method in Today’s University”
discusses the obstacles teachers confront that make the Socratic method difficult to teach in today’s
universities; and Ramona June Grey closes the volume on whether a set of standards can be
discovered in the Socratic method.
What we can conclude from all these chapters is that the Socratic method is both a techniqueand a
transformative experience where the student’s soul is turned away from the realm of opinion toward
a search for truth (Republic, 515e).^8 Although the teacher can employ an array of techniques,
enchantments, and appeals to the student, the love for wisdom ultimately lies outside the control of
the instructor. Like love and friendship, the Socratic method is like a prayer rooted in hope that this
fragile enterprise we undertake will yield something good for us and our students–but only the
gods know for sure.
Notes
1 I want to thank APSA, where these papers were presented at the 2017 Teaching and Learning Conference;
the staff at Routledge, especially Natalja Mortensen and Maria Landschoot; and the referees for this project.
2 Some recent examples are Ken Bain,What the Best College Teachers Do(Cambridge: Harvard, 2004);
Anne C. Martin and Ellen Schwartz,Making Space for Active Learning: The Art and Practice of Teaching
(New York: Teacher College Press, 2014); Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet,It Works for Me, Flipping the
Classroom: Shared Tips for Effective Teaching(Stillwater: New Forum Press, 2015); Claire Howell Major
and Michael S. Harris,Teaching for Learning(London: Routledge, 2015); Julee B. Waldrop and Melody
A. Bowdon,Best Practices for Flipping the Classroom(London: Routledge, 2015).
With respect to political science, see Diana E. Hess,Controversy in the Classroom(London: Routledge,
2009); Paula McAvoy,The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education(London:
Routledge, 2015); Laure Paquette,Teaching Political Science to Undergraduates(Berlin: De Gruyter,
2015); Sule Yaylaci and Edana Beauvais,“The Role of Social Group Membership on Classroom Partici-
pation,”PS: Political Science & Politics50/2 (2017): 599–64.
3 Leonard Nelson,Socratic Method and Critical Philosophy: Selected Essays(Mineola: Dover, 1949); Barry
S. Gower and Michael C. Stokes,Socratic Questions(London: Routledge, 1992); Kenneth Seeskin,Dialogue
and Discovery: A Study in the Socratic Method(Albany: SUNY Press, 1987); Alexander Nehamas,The Art of
Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000); Dana
Valla,Socratic Citizenship(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001); Thomas D. Eisele,Bitter Know-
ledge: Learning Socratic Lessons of Disillusion and Renewal(South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press,
2009); Rod Jenks,How Plato’s Theory of Truth Explains Socratic Method(Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press,
2010); JoelAldenSchlosser,What Would Socrates Do? Self-Examination, Civic Engagement, and the Politics
of Philosophy(Cambridge:Cambridge UniversityPress,2014);DustinSebell,The Socratic Turn: Knowledge
of Good and Evil in an Age of Science(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2016).
2 Lee Trepanier