What Would Socrates Do?
Socrates would do what he’ll always be remembered for: hosting a series of dialogues with people who had certain ideas going in, but who were willing to think differently by the time they got up to leave. And there’s the problem: there are damn few of these people in 21st Century America.
Had he lived today, he would not have been executed for what he did at the time (corrupting the morals of young Athenians), because now there is a much more limited appetite for truth-seeking. A great number of people today would simply tell him to go away, and take your weird, nonconformist, unpatriotic thinking with you.
His method was a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions. Does it appear the people pictured above are interested in participating in such an exercise?
