The Socratic Method 2.0

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jlse.12007
• Author: Matt Hlinak
• Published date: 01 March 2014
• Date: 01 March 2014

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 31, Issue 1, 1–20, Winter 2014

The Socratic Method 2.0

Matt Hlinak∗

Generations of American lawyers have been trained using the Socratic

method, a pedagogical tool dating back to ancient Athens, although one

that has been significantly customized by the legal academy. While the tradi-

tional law school form of the Socratic method is both overused and misused, a

properly constructed Socratic questioning session allows students of all levels

to strengthen their arguments and develop critical-thinking skills. This is true

in both face-to-face and online classrooms. By adapting the Socratic method

to new media, legal studies professors can guide their students through en-

gaging conversations that will enrich their understanding of course concepts.

While educational literature abounds with scholarship on both the So-

cratic method and distance learning, relatively few publications have ad-

dressed the intersection of the two. None have focused exclusively on how

these impacts apply to the teaching of legal studies. I will begin by describing

the Socratic method as developed by Socrates and as applied in modern legal

studies classrooms. I will then discuss the development of online learning,

particularly within the context of legal pedagogy. I will conclude with an

analysis of how the Socratic method can be effectively used in an online legal

studies course.

I. The Socratic Method

The Socratic method of instruction, also known as elenchus or the elenctic

method,1takes its name from the ancient Athenian philosopher Socrates

(470–399 BCE). He lived in the first Information Age, when widespread

∗Assistant Provost for Continuing Studies & Special Initiatives at Dominican University in River

Forest, Illinois. Although I thought of the term “Socratic Method 2.0” on my own, I am not

the first to use it. See Preston Rhea, A Legend in Bits,(Post)ˆ3 Modernism (Apr. 10, 2008),

http://prestonrhea.org/a-legend-in-bits/.

1Gregory Vlastos, The Socratic Elenchus,in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy I 27 (1983).

C2014 The Author

Journal of Legal Studies Education C2014 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

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2 Vol. 31 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education

literacy allowed ideas to be transmitted through the written word.2Most of

what we know about Socrates comes from his student Plato3(427–347 BCE),

who presents Socrates’ teaching style in The Republic:

[Socrates:] Tell me . . . what it is that you affirm about justice.

[Polemarchus:] That it is just to render each his due . . . [F]riends owe

it to friends to do them some good and no evil . . .

[Socrates:] But how about this—should one not render to enemies what

is their due?

[Polemarchus:] By all means . . . there is due and owing from an enemy

to an enemy . . . some evil.

[Socrates:] To do good to friends and evil to enemies, then, is

justice[?]. . .

[Polemarchus:] I think so. . . .

[Socrates:] Do not men make mistakes in this matter so that many seem

good to them who are not and the reverse?

[Polemarchus:] They do.

[Socrates:] For those, then, who thus err the good are their enemies

and the bad their friends?

[Polemarchus:] Certainly.

[Socrates:] But all the same it is then just for them to benefit the bad

and injure the good?

[Polemarchus:] It would seem so.

[Socrates:] But again the good are just and incapable of injustice.

[Polemarchus:] True.

[Socrates:] On your reasoning then it is just to wrong those who do not

do injustice.

[Polemarchus:] Nay, nay, Socrates . . . the reasoning can’t be right.4

As this passage demonstrates, Socrates begins by asking his student to state

a position and then uses a series of follow-up questions to help him think

more deeply on the subject. Although it may appear that Socrates holds

the ultimate answer to this difficult question, in reality he is only pushing

2See Alfred Burns, Athenian Literacy in the Fifth Century B.C.,42J. Hist. Ideas 371 (1981).

3Xenophon, Aristophanes, and Aristotle were also significant sources. Gary Alan Scott, Introduc-

tion,in Does Socrates Have a Method?: Rethinking Elenchus in Plato’s Dialogues and

Beyond 1 (2002).

45& 6 Plato, Plato in Twelve Volumes: The Republic §§ 1.331–1.334 (Paul Shorey trans.,

1969) (c. 380 BCE).