The Relationship between the Socratic Method and the Love of Knowledge (Philosophia)

The Socratic Method known as elenchus is the method used in Plato’s earlier dialogues namely Socratic dialogues. This method was a response to the sophists’ claim about the teaching of the virtue. Socrates used this method to disclose their ignorance. Through questioning and answering, he tried to make others aware that the searching for knowledge and virtue is achievable in a dialectical process and in relation to the other. The Socratic Method is not a simple method of dialogue, but it also points to the finitude of human understanding and, consequently, to the nature of philosophical thinking. From Socrates’s viewpoint, philosophy means the love of knowledge, and the claim on absolute knowledge is nothing more than an illusion. Through question and answer, Socrates tries to challenge other’s claim of knowledge and put them on the path of searching for knowledge. Thus the Socratic Method can play a powerful role in teaching. In Socrates’s thought we observe the interconnectedness of elements, all of which are understood in relation to each other. The doctrine of recollection, elenchus, dialectical art, question and answer and so on are among these elements. In this paper, while paying attention to these elements we will try to examine the nature of the Socratic Method.