How To Use the Socratic Method In Your Own Life

Plus birthright citizenship, recent stories in The Political Prism, and Pete Rose

A thinking Socrates preparing his next question; Source

In today’s newsletter, you’ll find the following:

• An essay on applying the Socratic Method to your own life

• Thoughts on the birthright citizenship argument before the U.S. Supreme Court

• Great stories in The Political Prism (we just hit 6,500 subscribers!)

• An essay on my Dad and Pete Rose

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Everyone sat on pins and needles. Such was life in a law school classroom with a professor who thrived on the Socratic Method. Nobody knew who would be the next victim. Some tried to preempt it by volunteering to ask questions early only to be caught unprepared later.

The reason so many law school professors use the Socratic Method is that it is still, ever since the 5th century BCE and the time of Socrates himself, the best method for discovering truth and stimulating critical thinking. Although too many professors have toned down the intensity of their questioning since the infamous times of Professor Kingsfield in The Paper Chase.

The Socratic Method is a form of cooperative dialogue based on asking and answering questions to draw out underlying ideas and truths. One of my former bosses used to love saying, “Let’s unpack that a bit”, before hitting me with a flurry of questions about some issue or perspective I shared.

That’s the Socratic Method and you don’t need to be a fancy lawyer to use it. In fact, anyone can use it in their day-to-day life. It doesn’t have to be an intense cross-examination either, but a simple, curiosity-driven inquiry that seeks truth.

Socrates was the master of his Socratic Method

During the “Golden Age of Athens” under the leadership of Pericles, Socrates developed his philosophical and teaching method that became known as the Socratic Method. His life coincided with significant events in Greek history, including the:

• Height of Athenian democracy and cultural flourishing

• Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta

• Eventual defeat of Athens by Sparta (404 BCE)

Socrates gained particular prominence following Athens’ defeat and its descent into political turmoil following the Peloponnesian War. His philosophical activities ultimately led to his trial and execution in 399 BCE when he was 70 years old, illustrating the power of his Socratic Method and the threat it posed to elites who attempted to shield the masses from truth.

What always fascinated me about Socrates is that he never wrote anything down. We are solely reliant on his famous student, Plato, to understand and appreciate his teachings. His Socratic Method would typically take the following approach, as detailed primarily in Plato’s Dialogues:

1. Engagement - Socrates would first engage with someone who claimed knowledge in a certain area like justice, virtue, or courage;

2. Ignorance - next Socrates would typically claim ignorance on the subject, opening the door to questioning;

3. Definition - at the start, Socrates would almost always ask his conversation partner to define the topic under discussion, for example, “What is virtue?”;

4. Examination - based on the definition he received, the questioning would commence;

5. Analogies, examples, and contradictions - these were the tools that Socrates (and many of my law school professors!) loved to use to challenge someone’s definitions or perspectives in order to highlight flaws, fallacies, or leaps in logic; and

6. Aporia - this is a “state of puzzlement or doubt” that Socrates’s conversation partner would often find themselves in towards the end of the discussion as they recognized the limits of their understanding.

Socrates’s use of this Socratic Method against prominent Athenians regularly led to their embarrassment and public shaming. Socrates had a number of devoted young (mostly male) followers who then used his method on their parents and other authority figures in Athenian society, bringing scorn on Socrates (who would probably be a podcaster in our modern era!).

With this context it’s probably easy to see why Socrates was found guilty, at least in part, for “corrupting the youth”, ultimately leading to his execution by hemlock. Socrates’s execution is one of the most famous historical examples of the conflict between intellectual freedom and state authority, revealing the enduring dangers of challenging established beliefs in public ways through the Socratic Method.

Applying the Socratic Method to your own life

You do not have to go to the extremes of Socrates in your own life to benefit from the Socratic Method. It can be as simple as asking curiosity-driven questions about an item on a bill and trying to understand why you were charged for it. Unlike an accusatory approach that immediately activates peoples’ defenses, the Socratic Method disarms them. But it’s crucial to employ the Socratic Method in good faith.

Nobody likes someone (like many of us lawyers) who nitpick or cross-examine others, sometimes just for the sake of it. If you approach it, however, with genuine curiosity towards truth-seeking, the vast majority of people will be receptive.

It works particularly well in situations where you feel like you were treated unfairly in some way. Whether personally or professionally. You may not have received a service you were expecting or a promotion or opportunity you were anticipating.

Run through the 6 steps of the Socratic Method detailed above. Respectfully, diplomatically, and in good faith.

The beauty of asking questions as a means of truth-seeking is that it puts the onus on the other person. Instead of forcing yourself to make declarations that you then have to potentially defend, questions shift that burden to your conversation partner. They’re then tasked with justifying the decisions, opinions, and perspectives.

Meanwhile, you’re tasked with listening and spotting flaws, fallacies, and leaps of logic in their thinking. You can ask them about similar examples, analogies, or apparent contradictions to draw out the truth even further.

How I used the Socratic Method in my past professional life

I used to work on Wall Street trading floors. First at a commodities trading firm that bought and sold physical commodities and shipped them all over the world, and later at one of the largest global banks where I covered a foreign exchange and emerging markets rates trading desk. Needless to say, there were a lot of issues that came across my desk every day as I was tasked with helping to internally police all of it.

When I was very junior in my career, anytime someone brought me an issue or question, I would immediately start lecturing. After being burned a few times, I realized that how people framed their issues and questions really mattered.

They may be concealing key information and facts, whether intentional or not. I was failing to draw out the embedded truths in what they were saying.

I needed to use the Socratic Method in order to give them the best legal and compliance guidance possible.

When I shifted to a more Socratic approach, my career skyrocketed. I also came off as more knowledgable because instead of revealing that I didn’t know something about a complex financial or legal topic, asking questions allowed me to gather sufficient information so I could later formulate a more informed opinion.

The people in the businesses I covered trusted me more. My colleagues in Legal and Compliance viewed me as more thoughtful and less prone to jumping to conclusions or falling prey to imprecise, sloppy thinking.

It may sound hyperbolic, but employing the Socratic Method everyday was a big reason why I was eventually promoted from Vice President to Executive Director at age 33. It’s a big reason why I was given projects others weren’t.

Because I discovered what many us already know, but few are willing to admit — many people are lazy in their thinking. They aren’t willing to initiate a Socratic dialogue and ask thoughtful questions that will lead everyone closer to truth.

See what the Socratic Method can do for you

Nothing is guaranteed in life, but I’m confident that if you apply basic Socratic Method principles in your daily life (always in good faith), your life will improve for the better. You will get in less confrontational disputes over politics and religion in your personal life, and you will gain more respect in your professional life as a thoughtful critical thinker.

There’s a reason law school professors still employ the Socratic Method to this day. And there’s a reason people still talk about the guy who invented the method despite the fact he died in 399 BCE.

The Socratic Method works.

You don’t have to be a lawyer. You don’t have to be an intellectual.

You simply need to be someone intent on discovering truth.

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Birthright citizenship - will the Trump administration rewrite the U.S. Constitution?

I gave some of my thoughts on the recent arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on this case, including how some of the justices reacted. The current issue before the Court is largely procedural — whether an injunction to uphold birthright citizenship while the Court decides on the substantive merits should apply only to the parties bringing the case or to all 50 states.

Despite this narrow procedural scope, we saw glimpses of how certain justices were thinking about the merits. Conservative justices Amy Coney-Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, for example, were skeptical that the Trump administration was acting in line with the Constitution or that they’d be able to stand up a process in 30 days (as called for by Trump’s executive order) to deny automatic citizenship to newborns in the U.S. whose parents are non-citizens.

As I noted in this thread, that would mean that people like Secretary of State Marco Rubio would not be U.S. citizens automatically.

So while I’m skeptical that the Court will side with the plaintiffs on the procedural issue, I think there’s a good chance they will uphold birthright citizenship as a substantive matter (with Coney-Barrett and Kavanaugh — at least — joining the liberal wing of the Court in a majority opinion).

For reference, here’s the relevant language in the 14th Amendment — decide for yourself based on a plain textual reading (which conservative jurists used to be all about) whether it guarantees birthright citizenship.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The Trump administration has latched onto the language, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”, arguing that non-citizens are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction and therefore this section of the 14th amendment does not apply to them.

But if we were to apply the Socratic Method — would criminal laws apply to non-citizens that are in the United States? Would tax laws apply to non-citizens that are in the United States?

I love Socrates.

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Latest hits from The Political Prism

If you’re interested in contributing, let me know! Here are some of the great recent stories we’ve published:

• The Trump Years and Constitutional Crisis by Marcus A Gadson

• AI Is Not the Victim: The Dangerous Precedent Set in an Arizona Courtroom by Bryan Driscoll

• Qatar’s Gift To Trump by Isaac Saul

• Elon Musk Is Watching His AI Dreams Die in Real Time by LGBTQ+ Pride Stories🏳️‍🌈

• The Causes of Jewish Exodus from Arab Countries Post-1948 by E.V. Solanas (إيفيلينا) | 🇵🇸

• India and Pakistan Are at War Again. The Reason Should Terrify You. by Venus Irvine

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Pete Rose and my Dad

Major League Baseball announced this week it was posthumously reinstating Pete Rose after banning him for decades due to his gambling while he was a manager and player. I took the opportunity to write an essay about Rose and how my Dad would be smiling today if he were still alive to hear this news.

You can find it on polispandit.com or on Medium. Here’s an excerpt that I’ll leave you with to start your weekend:

Pete Rose was one of my Dad’s favorite ballplayers. I can still hear him now, “John, this is how you play baseball. Hard. Intense. They call this guy Charlie Hustle for a reason.”

Of course, my Dad was talking about Pete Rose, the current Major League Baseball (MLB) record holder for number of games played (3,562) and hits (4,256). Rose earned this nickname for his intensity running the bases and his overall hardcore play. Yankees legends, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, notably coined the moniker, which Rose embraced throughout his career.

Pete Rose won three World Series rings, two with the Cincinnati Reds and one with the Philadelphia Phillies. His Reds teams from the 1970s, known as the Big Red Machine, are in the conversation for some of the greatest teams in baseball history.

Rose won the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, 1973 NL Most Valuable Player, three batting titles, two gold gloves, and one silver slugger. He also won the World Series MVP in 1975.

But Pete Rose is not in MLB’s Hall of Fame. He was banned from consideration until recently. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred decided it was time to lift the ban on Rose who was ousted from baseball for gambling. Unfortunately, Rose is not alive to enjoy it, having passed away in September 2024.

Finish reading at polispandit.com.