- 2025-07-09
- See Resisting the urge to switch to logic or rhetoric for the reasoning here
What should I do?
Lazy but slow way → make flashcards from every chapter, in order
- The benefit of this approach is that you don’t have to use your brain much, lol
- But it’s not a very targeted/efficient/prioritised way to learn, e.g. identifying the top 3 chapters to get a deeper understanding of first, vs “I guess I’ll make flashcards from all 200 pages”
Identify specific chapters
Here are the chapters:
- The Socratic Problem
- Method vs. Doctrine
- Elements of the Method
- The Socratic Function
- Question and Answer
- The Elenchus
- Consistency
- Systole and Diastole
- Analogies
- Socratic Rules for Dialogue
- Ignorance
- Aporia
- Socratic Goods
- Socratic Ethics
- Socrates and the Stoics
- Socrates and the Skeptics
- Finding Principles
- Testing Principles
- EPILOGUE: Socratic Rules of Engagement
Here’s my reorganised version
1. Meta → the “why”, the profundity
- The Socratic Problem (ch.1)
- Method vs. Doctrine (ch.2)
- Socrates and the Stoics (ch.15)
- Socrates and the Skeptics (ch.16)
2. The ontology (“Being” Socrates)
- The Socratic Function (ch.4)
- Question and Answer (ch.5)
- Consistency (ch.7)
- Socratic Rules for Dialogue (ch.10)
- Ignorance (ch.11)
- Aporia (ch.12)
- Socratic Goods (ch.13)
- Socratic Ethics (ch.14)
- Socratic Rules for Engagement (ch.19)
3. Particulars of the method
- Elements of the Method (ch.3)
- The Elenchus (ch.6)
- Systole and Diastole (ch.8)
- Analogies (ch.9)
- Finding Principles (ch.17)
- Testing Principles (ch.18)
Ok, so…
- I think the “why”/the profundity is definitely grokked enough. I’m very on board, this is very alive for me currently. I’m currently in a mode where the danger of my own double-ignorance has been made very apparent/salient to me