The Socratic Method, Ward Farnsworth
The Socratic Method, Ward Farnsworth
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The Socratic Method
A Practitioner’s Handbook

Author: Ward Farnsworth

Narrator: John Lescault

Unabridged: 7 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/05/2021


Synopsis

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 the Farnsworth’s Classical English series, 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.

About Ward Farnsworth

Ward Farnsworth is dean and John Jeffers Research Chair at the University of Texas School of Law. He received his JD with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, and his BA from Wesleyan University. He is the author of books on law, philosophy, rhetoric, and chess and has published scholarly articles on the economic analysis of law, constitutional law, statutory interpretation, jurisprudence, and cognitive psychology.

About John Lescault

Patrick Cullen (a.k.a. John Lescault), a native of Massachusetts, is a graduate of the Catholic University of America. He lives in Washington, DC, where he works in theater.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan on July 16, 2022

Questioning someone incessantly until they contradict themselves is not a recipe for popularity. It turns out that people don’t like to be shown, carefully and methodically, how little they know about a subject or how much they underestimate their own ignorance. Persist in this manner for long enoug......more

Goodreads review by Massimo on February 17, 2024

This book is a must. Not just for anyone interested in Socrates, or in the Greco-Romans, or in philosophy. For anyone interested in good thinking and constructive discourse. That is, everyone, yes? Okay, maybe not. Still, Farnsworth makes an excellent case for why we should all practice the Socratic......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on October 26, 2021

How much would you pay for a better self? So far, Farnsworth has written one book that changed how I think about writing (Classical English Rhetoric), one book that changed how I think about the law (The Legal Analyst), and one book that changed how I think about hardship (The Practicing Stoic).* F......more

Goodreads review by Shawn on August 27, 2022

I’ve tried over the years to adapt Socratic dialogue and methods to my classroom. It’s not always easy or feasible due to large class sizes or being online. Ward Farnsworth book reinvigorates my motivation to do so and also gives me some helpful ideas on how I might continue to adapt Socratic method......more

Goodreads review by Robert on December 10, 2021

I first discovered Ward Farnsworth's work when I happened across some of his work on law, and found it in equal parts accessible, insightful, and illuminating. It was my great fortune to later discover that he's written on a wide variety of other topics, and always seems to have something of great v......more


Quotes

“A wonderful book. It is elegant, erudite, but wears its pedagogical virtues so lightly as to never come off as pedantic.” Rebecca Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex

“A great success. There is nothing like it. An excellent resource both for students and for general readers.” A. A. Long, author of Epictetus