Plato's Republic: The Socratic Method

The Socratic Method is a form of teaching or arguing that is executed by asking leading questions to someone rather than just stating a conclusion or opinion outright. The broad goal of the Socratic Method is to ultimately have the person who is being asked the questions personally figure out, disagree with, or agree with whatever it is that is being debated by themselves. Such a method, which is adopted by Socrates in The Republic, is essential in philosophy because it is the only way to acquire wisdom or insight-virtues that cannot be physically or verbally transferred to another-is from within. Socrates believes that people have the raw materials within to figure out philosophical questions; they just need to channel them. That idea is the basis behind his belief that a teacher should not merely insert knowledge into an empty mind, but rather help individuals harness the raw materials they already posses to find "truths" in life. According to Socrates the human mind, much like the varying definitions of justice, is overwhelmed with confusion and jumble.

The confusion and Jumble that is present in the human mind is attempted to be clarified or refined through a system of dialectics. The first thing that is essential for such a system to be able to be operated is an idea, no matter how vague, pertaining to the subject. Usually the idea is shown to be flawed in some way by showing that it may be lacking completeness to it. That is it does have good points concerning some things but it does not "cover" everything. The way to make someone become aware of such flaws in their ideas, and thus force them to ultimately disagree with them, usually can be done in one of two ways. The first of these methods is make the person realize that their idea is contradictory to itself. An example of that would be when Socrates asked Cephalus if it would be just, in the context of Cephalus's definition of justice being to repay what you owe, to return weapons borrowed from a man that