The main problem with using the Socratic Method as a didactic tool is that it really wasn’t intended for that purpose; Socrates was a man who claimed to know nothing, and the “Socratic method” is simply a collection of techniques he developed to demonstrate that other people didn’t know anything either. 90% of his so-called Method (as demonstrated in the early dialogues like Euthyphro or Charmides—which have the highest probability of actually being representative of things he actually said, and not just mouthpiecing from Plato) consists of Socrates demanding that people define their terms, refusing to continue the argument until they did so, and then pointing out that the definitions they supply are either self-contradictory or inconsistent with what they’re actually arguing.
When used correctly, the Socratic method is great at exposing logical inconsistency and self- contradiction, but extremely inefficient when it comes to guiding people to truth—its purpose is to destroy; it does not create.
The main problem with using the Socratic Method as a didactic tool is that it really wasn’t intended for that purpose; Socrates was a man who claimed to know nothing, and the “Socratic method” is simply a collection of techniques he developed to demonstrate that other people didn’t know anything either. 90% of his so-called Method (as demonstrated in the early dialogues like Euthyphro or Charmides—which have the highest probability of actually being representative of things he actually said, and not just mouthpiecing from Plato) consists of Socrates demanding that people define their terms, refusing to continue the argument until they did so, and then pointing out that the definitions they supply are either self-contradictory or inconsistent with what they’re actually arguing. When used correctly, the Socratic method is great at exposing logical inconsistency and self- contradiction, but extremely inefficient when it comes to guiding people to truth—its purpose is to destroy; it does not create.
That’s really interesting; maybe we need a new name for the (convoluted) modern Socratic method?