The Socratic Method: A Practitioner's Handbook

This handbook teaches the Socratic method as a practical skill, covering its definition, its origins in the ancient world and the steps for putting it into practice. It treats the method as a way to reason more clearly about questions of any size, and as a technique for teaching other people or for questioning oneself.

The chapters build the method up one element at a time. Each step is illustrated with examples from Plato's dialogues, and the book shows how to write Socratic questions of a reader's own rather than only studying Socrates' questions. Readers who want to use the method, and admire it less, are the intended audience.

The book also traces how the teachings of Socrates led to the philosophies of Stoicism and Skepticism. Two applications get their own treatment. One is the classroom, where the method can serve as a way of teaching. The other is conversation about politics and other hard subjects, for which the book sets out Socratic rules of engagement.

It is non-fiction, part guide and part introduction to ancient philosophy. The method is presented as easy to understand but hard to master, and the book is written for general readers, teachers and anyone who wants to argue and think with more care.