Question 1

What is the Socratic method?

Accepted Answer

The Socratic method is inquiry by systematic questioning: rather than asserting a claim, one exposes its strength or weakness by drawing out its consequences and testing them for consistency. Contradiction, not refutation, is the instrument.

Question 2

How do you apply Socratic questioning?

Accepted Answer

Ask for the definition, then probe it with cases that strain it, then follow the answers to where they conflict with an earlier commitment. The Socratic Duel automates the adversary: it remembers every claim and quotes your contradictions back to you.

Question 3

How did Socrates argue?

Accepted Answer

Socrates used elenchus — cross-examination that led interlocutors to contradict themselves from their own admissions, revealing that a confidently held belief was not in fact coherent. He rarely asserted; he questioned.

Question 4

Can the Socratic method be practiced alone?

Accepted Answer

It can, with an opponent that holds you to consistency. The Socratic Duel supplies that opponent: a Gadfly that tracks your every claim, so you practice defending a thesis without contradicting yourself under sustained attack.

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