The Socratic Method

A Practitioner’s Handbook

By: Ward Farnsworth

Narrated by: John Lescault

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

A thinking person’s guide to a better life. Ward Farnsworth explains what the Socratic method is, how it works, and why it matters more than ever in our time. Easy to grasp yet challenging to master, the method will change the way you think about life’s big questions.

About 2,500 years ago, Plato wrote a set of dialogues that depict Socrates in conversation. The way Socrates asks questions, and the reasons why, amount to a whole way of thinking. This is the Socratic method - one of humanity’s great achievements. More than a technique, the method is an ethic of patience, inquiry, humility, and doubt. It is an aid to better thinking, and a remedy for bad habits of mind, whether in law, politics, the classroom, or tackling life’s big questions at the kitchen table.

Drawing on hundreds of quotations, this book explains what the Socratic method is and how to use it. Chapters include “Question and Answer”, “Ignorance”, and “Socrates and the Stoics”. Socratic philosophy is still startling after all these years because it is an approach to asking hard questions and chasing after them. It is a route to wisdom and a way of thinking about wisdom. With Farnsworth as your guide, the ideas of Socrates are easier to understand than ever and accessible to anyone.

As Farnsworth achieved with The Practicing Stoic and Farnsworth’s Classical English Style, ideas of old are made new and vital again. This book is for those coming to philosophy the way Socrates did - as the everyday activity of making sense out of life and how to live it - and for anyone who wants to know what he said about doing that better.

©2021 Ward Farnsworth (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

How Much Would You Pay For A Better Self?

Early in the book, Farnsworth compares the Socratic Method to glasses. Glasses help us see more clearly; the Socratic method helps us think more clearly. I found this apt. Two chapters near the end of the book did far and away the most to prescribe me the better glasses I'd been looking for. These were the chapters when Farnsworth gets into the nitty gritty details of how to ask questions that move an investigation forwards (often by looking for definitions, locating fundamental principles, and bringing up counter examples).
I've often found that the right question can do more to persuade someone than any number of arguments. Farnsworth seems to agree. He describes it as standing next to your interlocutor and investigating claims together rather than assuming a combative position. Two allies looking for the answer to a hard question will generally get much further than two opponents trying to show why the other is wrong.
A main strength of the book is Socrates himself. He is the question personified. He keeps things interesting. He's always up to something, whether it's questioning nobles on what the definition of courage is, getting sentenced to death, or drinking his hemlock without so much as a complaint about the taste. He's a boon to philosophy in general and this book in particular.
Farnsworth makes the social goal of his book clear. No one needs me to say that most public discourse seems to lack the Socratic values of respectful (if lively) questioning and searching for truth over winning arguments. I'll admit that I'm not optimistic about society's chances of adopting these values. However, I'm more optimistic about the readers of this book walking away with some invaluable tools for how to conduct important conversations both in the world and in their minds.

Last couple of chapters were the best.

Last couple of chapters were the best.
I learned a lot.
I plan to practice what I learned.
Nice job reading.

Nicely done

I like it really really really really really really well, it’s very very very nice

Greatly Insightful

Ordinarily I would leave only a star review and not make a comment, but in this case I’m making an exception. I have nothing but the highest praise for this book and how it illuminates the Socratic method. However, the narrator is abysmal. His voice is one of the most monotonous I’ve encountered in any audiobook. In fact, at one point I paused the recording to see if this audiobook was actually read by a human being and not a computer program. Not a kind review, but there you have it.

Enlightening and Informative!

So far, I have listened to this book three times. Each time I hear new nuances and distinctions to clarify my understanding of Socratic thought. I enjoy the realization that these ancient processes of thought and discourse are relevant and applicable to our current communication in 2022
Thanks to the author and narrator for this thought provoking and enjoyable read!

Still feel the same

Not a handbook. A handbook would give explicit instructions. To many personal opinions “like Nazi’s”

INSPIRING AND EDUCATIONAL

Great learning. The last half of the epilog should be carved in stone! Touché.

Extrordinary

In both content and narration. Mr. Farnsworth prose is very clear and this analysis of the topic very useful.

best book for the layman

I've read the socratic dialogues, and listened to several lectures about them. In my mind this is the best and quickest way to learn about all the details of the socratic method without being bogged down with too much intellectual jargon or be overloaded with study time. I'd recommend this to a friend over Plato's writing, because how the author disects the dialogue; he present the meat of the material in a way that easy to understand. Even though it's quick, the writing is potent. He uses some of the best snippets from Plato's writing when giving examples and making a point. I have a physical copy of this book but the audiobook is also well done.

A Timely Reminder

Ward Farnsworth's 2021 book is a reminder for our divided and partisan times. What better approach is there to overcoming our current political battles, media wars, and social media silos than to engage is active philosophical debate and inquiry according to the humanistic methods of Socrates.