The Socratic Method
Ward Farnsworth is Professor and W. Page Keeton Chair at the University of Texas School of Law. He is author of The Socratic Method, The Practicing Stoic, and the Farnsworth Classical English series which includes Argument, Rhetoric, Metaphor, and Style-all published by Godine.
Praise for The Socratic Method
“Amid 21st-century rancor, a voice from ancient Athens offers an
alternative: truth and a little humility....None should be
discouraged from seeking out this remarkable book. By presenting
the Socratic method as invitingly as it does, it eases the daunting
task of taming the fanatical, irrational, censorious beasts in the
American political zoo.”
—Wall Street Journal
“Learned, erudite, and elegant.”
—The Millions
“The Socratic method decelerates reasoning, making space for
deliberation when disagreements arise. So, the Socratic method is,
Farnsworth says, an antidote to some social pandemics of our
day.”
—George F. Will
“A wonderful book. It is elegant, erudite, but wears its
pedagogical virtues so lightly as to never come off as
pedantic.”
—Rebecca Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex
“A group of bad American movies has unfortunately associated the
Socratic method of inquiry and teaching with a bullying style of
teaching. But the Socratic method was something very different to
Socrates, and is something that remains at the heart of serious
intellectual honesty. Ward Farnsworth’s important book is not only
impressively erudite in its mining of classical sources, but is
also the best account we have of what the Socratic method really is
and why we dismiss or caricature it at our peril.”
—Frederick Schauer, David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor
of Law, University of Virginia
“Many of us refer casually to the Socratic method and some of us
think we practice it. But is only when reading Ward Farnsworth’s
learned and inspiring book that one can begin to appreciate the
profundity of Plato’s teaching and understand how its lessons are
just what is needed in a world where invective and hasty judgments
seem to have replaced deliberative reasoning and rational
argument.”
—Stanley Fish, author of Winning Arguments
“A great success. There is nothing like it. An excellent resource
both for students and for general readers.”
—A. A. Long, author of Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to
Life
“A beautifully written, immensely thoughtful, and multi-faceted
book. Ward Farnsworth offers a fresh understanding of the Socratic
method as it’s represented in Plato’s early dialogs, then shows how
it can be internalized as a way of bettering intelligence.”
—Henry Abelove, Professor Emeritus of English, Wesleyan
University
“Ward Farnsworth’s The Socratic Method deserves attention from
scholars and lawyers and teachers of law—but, really, from anyone
who wants to practice clear thinking. The book rests on a firm
foundation of scholarship and then goes on to do something at which
few such scholarly works succeed: it is useful for ordinary
readers. It is indeed a practitioner’s handbook. Read it to enlarge
your knowledge of ancient thought, but also read it for the mental
exercises all thinkers need in order to stay agile.”
—Paul Woodruff, author of The Garden of Leaders: Revolutionizing
Higher Education
“Ward Farnsworth’s brilliant new book, The Socratic Method, offers
powerful insights into the most important and effective means for
discovering the truth, or at least coming closer to it, in
education, politics, business, and everyday relations. Building on
the wisdom of Socrates, Farnsworth makes clear not only why
Socratic discourse is essential, but also how to undertake such
discourse in a positive and affirming manner. This is especially
important today at a time of deep political polarization in which
Americans increasingly speak only to people like themselves and
hold those who disagree with them in disdain. This state of
affairs, no doubt contributed to by the advent of social media,
poses a serious threat to a well-functioning democracy. If we as a
nation are to make it through these times and preserve the most
fundamental premises of our democracy, we must all learn how to
engage in Socratic discourse and embrace the principles of an open
mind, rigorous questioning and honest debate. This book offers
essential lessons to anyone seeking to preserve American
democracy.”
—Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Professor of Law,
The University of Chicago
More by Ward Farnsworth:
The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User’s Manual:
“As befits a good Stoic, Farnsworth’s expository prose exhibits
both clarity and an unflappable calm… Throughout The Practicing
Stoic, Farnsworth beautifully integrates his own observations with
scores of quotations from Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius,
Montaigne and others. As a result, this isn’t just a book to
read—it’s a book to return to, a book that will provide perspective
and consolation at times of heartbreak or calamity.”
—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
“It is reported that upon Seneca’s tomb are written the words,
Who’s Minding the Stoa? He would be pleased to know the answer is
Ward Farnsworth.”
—David Mamet
“This is a book any thoughtful person will be glad to have along as
a companion for an extended weekend or, indeed, for that protracted
journey we call life.”
—The New Criterion
“This sturdy and engaging introductory text consists mostly of
excerpts from the ancient Greek and Roman Stoic philosophers,
especially Seneca, Epictetus through his student Arrian, and Marcus
Aurelius as well as that trio’s philosophical confreres, from the
earlier Hellenic Stoics and Cicero to such contemporaries as
Plutarch to moderns, including Montaigne, Adam Smith, and
Schopenhauer… A philosophy to live by, Stoicism may remind many of
Buddhism and Quakerism, for it asks of practitioners something very
similar to what those disciplines call mindfulness.”
—Booklist
Farnsworth’s Classical English Style:
“Mr. Farnsworth has written an original and absorbing guide to
English style. Get it if you can.”
—Wall Street Journal
“For writers aspiring to master the craft, Farnsworth shows how
it’s done. For lovers of language, he provides waves of sheer
pleasure.”—Steven Pinker
“An eloquent study of the very mechanisms of eloquence.”
—Henry Hitchings
“A great and edifying pleasure.”
—Mark Helprin
“A storehouse of effective writing, showing the techniques you may
freely adapt to make music of your own.”
—The Baltimore Sun
Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric:
“I must refrain from shouting what a brilliant work this is
(præteritio). Farnsworth has written the book as he ought to have
written it – and as only he could have written it (symploce). Buy
it and read it – buy it and read it (epimone).”
—Bryan A. Garner
“The most immediate pleasure of this book is that it heightens
one’s appreciation of the craft of great writers and speakers. Mr.
Farnsworth includes numerous examples from Shakespeare and Dickens,
Thoreau and Emerson, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. He also
seems keen to rehabilitate writers and speakers whose rhetorical
artistry is undervalued; besides his liking for Chesterton, he
shows deep admiration for the Irish statesman Henry Grattan
(1746-1820), whose studied repetition of a word (‘No lawyer can say
so; because no lawyer could say so without forfeiting his character
as a lawyer’) is an instance, we are told, of conduplicatio. But
more than anything Mr. Farnsworth wants to restore the reputation
of rhetorical artistry per se, and the result is a handsome work of
reference.”
—Henry Hitchings, Wall Street Journal
Farnsworth’s Classical English Metaphor:
“Ward Farnsworth is a witty commentator…It’s a book to dip in and
savor.”
—The Boston Globe
“Most people will find it a grab-bag of memorable quotations, an
ideal browsing book for the nightstand.”
—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
“I want this book to be beside my bed for years to come, a
treasure-house of the liquid magic of words.”
—Simon Winchester
“A feat of elegant demystification…Farnsworth is able to focus on
the finite material of metaphorical referents…a brilliant strategy,
both in its utility for writers and the inherent insight
Farnsworth’s divisions suggest about metaphors.”
—Jonathan Russell Clark, The Millions
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