Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to Socrates or the Socratic method.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to the methods, style, doctrine, character, person, or followers of the illustrious Athenian philosopher Socrates (about 470–399 b. c).
  • noun A disciple of Socrates: as, Æschines the Socratic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to Socrates, the Grecian sage and teacher. (b. c. 469-399), or to his manner of teaching and philosophizing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of or characteristic of the philosopher Socrates or his philosophical methods and/or views.
  • noun a follower of Socrates.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to Socrates or to his method of teaching

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Socraticus, From Ancient Greek Σωκρατικός (Sōkratikos, "of Socrates"), from Σωκράτης (Sōkratēs, "Socrates").

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Examples

  • The future of the American idea — both then and now, here and abroad — depends on the vision, courage, and determination of decent and compassionate people to engage in Socratic questioning of the powers that be, to take the risk of prophetic witness, and to preserve a hope for democratization.

    Archive 2007-10-01 2007

  • = -- Developing, or training, questions, are sometimes referred to as Socratic questions.

    Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education Ontario. Ministry of Education

  • His method was interrogation, he whetted the curiosity of the audience and practised what had become known as Socratic irony and the maieutic art (maieutikê techne), the art of delivering minds of their conceptions.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

  • When I first came to law school, I, along with everyone else, was at least mildly intimidated by this thing called the Socratic method.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Teaching to Different Learning Styles in Law School 2009

  • His own — that is, the Socratic — method of conducting a rational discussion632 was to proceed step by step from one point of general agreement to another: “Herein lay the real security of reasoning,” 633 he would say; and for this reason he was more successful in winning the common assent of his hearers than any one I ever knew.

    Memorabilia 2007

  • If the love called Socratic and Platonic is only a becoming sentiment, it is to be applauded; if an unnatural license, we must blush for Greece.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • Without knowing it, I was being exposed to what we sometimes call the Socratic method in which the instructor or facilitator draws not only on his fount of knowledge but on the knowledge of his pupils, on their experiences, on their perspectives.

    Technology: The Death of Teaching, a Rebirth of Education 1997

  • I believe that in teaching touch the teacher should first give his model of the touch required and then proceed from this positive ideal, by means of the so-called Socratic method of inducing the pupil to produce a similar result through repeated questions.

    Great Pianists on Piano Playing Study Talks with Foremost Virtuosos. A Series of Personal Educational Conferences with Renowned Masters of the Keyboard, Presenting the Most Modern Ideas upon the Subjects of Technic, Interpretation, Style and Expression James Francis Cooke 1917

  • His own -- that is, the Socratic -- method of conducting a rational discussion (42) was to proceed step by step from one point of general agreement to another: "Herein lay the real security of reasoning," (43) he would say; and for this reason he was more successful in winning the common assent of his hearers than any one I ever knew.

    The Memorabilia 431 BC-350? BC Xenophon 1874

  • To be sure he used the method afterwards adopted by Socrates, and now known as the Socratic method, of appealing to the unquestioned belief of the Brahmans themselves as the foundation of his argument in support of that fundamental truth of all religions, that the pure in heart alone can see God.

    The Dawn and the Day Or, The Buddha and the Christ, Part I Henry Thayer Niles 1863

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