SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM
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Last printed 3/14/2023 11:35:00 AM
CHAPTER 4
THE WISE MAN: SOCRATES
Chapter 4 Key Concepts
Socrates challenged the Sophist doctrines of relativism,
moral realism, and might makes right. He also insisted that no
one who took money for teaching could teach the truth.
Socrates possessed a power that went beyond rational
The Socratic method or Socratic dialectic is a question-
and-answer teaching method based on the assumption that
the function of education is to draw the truth out of the pupil
Socrates used irony to encourage active listening by his
pupils or dialectical partners. An ironic utterance is a way of
communicating that has at least two levels of meaning: the
literal level, also known as the obvious level, and the hidden
level, also known as the real level.
SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM
Chapter 4 Teaching Tips
1. Have students read The Allegory of the Cave (Chapter 5,
pages 142 145) as an additional story about Socrates. Explain
2. Refer to the photo of Dr. Phil (page 114) to initiate a
discussion about an imaginary encounter between Socrates
3. Ask students to construct Socratic dialogues with the
figures identified in tip 2 and a contemporary Socrates. Have
4. Compare and contrast Callicles speech For to suffer
wrong is not the part of a man . . . but that of a slave
(Chapter 3, pages 88 90) to Socrates refusal to escape
5. Here s a simplified version of an encounter between
Socrates and Protagoras that you can use to show how
6. The Ring of Gyges box (Chapter 3, page 81) can also be
used to enhance your discussion of Socratic egoism.
7. One of the predictable suspicions students have about
Socrates is that he was just a cleverer sophist than the sophists
he tangled up via his dialectical inquiries. This suspicious
8. Take a moment to linger over the For Deeper
Consideration box on page 98. It raises the intriguing question
of the recognition of wisdom. If it takes a wise person to
9. Take class time to discuss Socrates mission as it related to
the Delphic motto Know thyself. You might ask the class to
differentiate between navel gazing and fruitful self-
reflection. What, if anything, is lost by never wondering about