This book is for a specific type of person. It was written for people who are interested in the philosophy of Socrates. It does a very good job at laying out the philosophy particle by particle, including giving the history of the man who started the whole thing. By the end of the book, you cannot possibly misunderstand it, and that's what makes this book so solid.
As this book points out, much of what we knew about Socrates was delivered to us through the works of Plato, since Socrates was not a writer. I got interested in him when I started watching debaters who were using his method, and I was stunned at how they were able to so politely shift the talking points into more of a neutral and even agreeable area... and then turn things around into their favor. It is not an aggressive technique. It's actually very friendly, opting not to push people away but rather does everything it can to find agreements with one another.
But I was not interested in it for personal debating reasons. I was more interested in it for its self-help reasons. My mind has a tendency to shoot around in sudden directions, forming assertions and defending against anything that might tear down those assertions. I knew I was doing it, and I didn't like it. The more I studied the Socratic method through other people, I began to realize that this might help me clear up some of my internal issues, and it really has helped a lot. It has even kind of made Christianity a bit clearer, rather than having me interpret it the way I prefer it to be, which is what I had been doing.
The author of this book does not write it in a biased way at all. It sticks to the subject at hand flawlessly. I was kind of shocked to see that happen in modern times. People always want to put their spin on things. This book makes no attempt to do that. It just spends the whole time telling you how the method works... and then it ends. That's what I wanted, and that's what I got.
Just a brief explanation of what the Socratic method is: it has to do with being open minded and interested in what the truth actually is rather than just sticking with what you already assume, believe, or think. It's foundation has to do with asking question and learning, with interest, about what answers you get. You have to care about the other side for this to even mean anything. Once you ask those questions you begin to look for spots that don't connect just right, which should lead to more questions. The actual truth may not come out, but it can certainly help you find out things about this world that you might not have understood while on the journey.
And like I said earlier, this isn't just about debates. It is also something you can do with yourself. You can have these really interesting internal dialogs where you test your own knowledge. It's not about defending anything. It's just about being willing to listen, learn, and pretty much stay that way as a general rule. It's like a clean-up service for your brain that comes in regularly. It is not supposed to be used aggressively. In fact, Benjamin Franklin notoriously tried to use it that way, and he later wrote that it was an improper use and decided to stop doing it.
Anyways, that's all I got to say on this book. I recommend it to anyone who is interested. I do want to say, however, that I wish schools taught the Socratic method by at least high school. It's always been an elective, if offered at all. Schools these days do not really promote active learning. They have lately been opting to drill ideas into people's minds and then release them into the world with those ideals. Nobody listens and learns anymore; they just shoot down other people and shut everything else out. It's sad. Schools have really let us down. I'm lucky I found this eventually.
This blog was written on September 5, 2026.
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