- “promises to
enrich the field by providing an account of Socratic
philosophizing that is quite different from standard
accounts… I enthusiastically recommend this
book."
- -Professor Nicholas D. Smith, Lewis and Clack
College
- About The Author:
- Rebecca Bensen Cain teaches philosophy at Oklahoma
State University, USA. Her previous publications
include articles in the Journal of the History of
Philosophy and Southwest Philosophy Review.
This book develops a new account of Socratic method
based on psychological model of Socrates’ character
and conduct as portrayed dramatically in Plato’s
dialogues. Socratic method is a blend of three types
of philosophical discourse: refutation, truth-seeking,
and persuasion. Cain focuses on the persuasive
features of the method since, in her view, it is this
aspect of Socrates’ method that best explains the
content and the value of the dialectical arguments.
Emphasizing the persuasive aspect of Socratic
Method helps to uncover the operative standards of
dialectical argumentation in fifth-century Athens. We
see that Socrates uses ambiguity and other strategic
fallacies with purposeful play and for moral ends.
Taking specific examples from the dialogues, Cain
shows how the interlocutor’s personal character is
linked to the arguments that Socrates constructs to
refute him. Cain examines sophistic rhetoric and
contentious debate in Socrates’ time, and Aristotle’s
perspective on the techniques of argument and their
purposes. The merit of this interpretations that it
gives breadth, depth, and balance to Socrates’
argumentative style; it also shows that Plato, as a
philosopher and dramatist, is deeply concerned with
the use and misuse of language. The book concludes
with a discussion of the creative use of ambiguity and
brings together the main topics of Socratic method,
ambiguity, and drama in Plato and the ancient Greek
literary tradition. |
