The Art of Listening

[Dill]

(07-29-2019, 03:22 PM)GMDino Wrote: Socrates said we all know the answers ourselves we just need to find those answers within. (Paraphrasing)  So occasionally one might be able to have a person come to a moment of self realization with no prodding in a direction but it seems to be more about "let's get along and not yell at each other" than actually solving problems to me.

Anamnesis. Souls are eternal; but are reborn in forgetfulness.  No teacher can teach anything. He can only bring about recollection of what was once known but forgotten.  That's the argument of the Meno, where Socrates brings a slave boy who does not know the Pythagorean theorem to articulate it, simply by asking the right questions. (The point of the argument is to address the paradox of how we can recognize something we don't know, if we don't already know it. That's still a pretty big problem with all definitions; witness recent discussions on racism on various threads.)

LOL doesn't happen with no prodding though. People need teachers and have to already understand something of logic and the principle of non-contradiction, and to value that understanding. Socrates and Plato would be elitist by modern standards because they as assume "the many" are neither interested in nor capable of this.

Maybe B-zona is plying us with an updated, more democratic version of Socratic method?