What can you learn from Socrates?

Tuesday 29th March 2011 | 4 comments

magnifying glassI'm running a workshop this week that includes reference to critical thinking as well as creative thinking. It has reminded me of my law student days, when I took an elective in Socratic questioning and Aristotelian logic. I really enjoyed learning the system of uncovering truth by using questions, but haven't consciously used it much until I came to prepare for this workshop.

Socratic questioning is all about using questions to uncover the truth about something, and is a core part of critical thinking. You can Google 'Socratic Questioning' and find a wealth of information. Here are some starter questions, based on R.W. Paul's six types of Socratic questions:

Questions for clarification

  1. Why do you say that?
  2. How does this relate to our discussion?
  3. Is your new product going to be available overseas?

Questions that probe assumptions

  1. How can you test that assumption?
  2. What could we assume instead?
  3. Why is the budget $500,000? Can we do it for less and achieve the same result?

Questions that probe reasons and evidence

  1. What would be an example?
  2. What do you think causes this? Why?
  3. Is the loss of profits in June caused by the change in our marketing strategy? Can we prove that?

Questions about paradigms and perspectives

  1. What's a different way to look at it?
  2. Who benefits? Who will suffer?
  3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of...?
  4. How are X and Y similar? How are they different?
  5. What is a counterargument for...?
  6. If we introduce the new staff policies, how will they affect older staff?

Questions that probe implications and consequences

  1. What are the consequences of that view?
  2. What are you implying?
  3. How does X affect Y?
  4. How would our project change if we dropped the prototype phase?

Questions about the question

  1. What was the point of this question?
  2. What does X mean?
  3. Why is this project worth doing? Why is it important?

What do you think? Could you see this being useful to you? What tools do you use for critical thinking (or do you avoid it altogether)?

Tags: creativity, tips

Comments

  1. Yes, questions are important, and are not used enough. Everyone wants to 'tell what they know' but asking questions leads to listening .. and that's where the real value is.

    Posted by Deb | Tuesday 29th March 2011 @ 7:20pm

  2. Deb, thanks for that - I really like the link between asking questions and actually listening to the answers. It's the other half of the equation (and definitely the half I am not so good at!). Good to hear from you.

    Posted by Joanna Maxwell | Tuesday 29th March 2011 @ 8:02pm

  3. A great book for anyone wanting to be introduced to Aristototelian logic is: Persuading Aristotle by Peter Thompson, one of the most valuable business books I've read.

    Posted by Paul Cunningham | Wednesday 30th March 2011 @ 9:07am

  4. Paul, thank you. The book looks great, I have just ordered myself a copy!

    Posted by joanna Maxwell | Wednesday 30th March 2011 @ 9:38am

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