Socratic Method
so-called wise men thought themselves wise and yet were not, he himself knew he was not wise at all which, paradoxically, made him the wiser one since he was the only person aware of his own ignorance…. -about Socrates on Wikipedia
Paradoxes of Socrates have always intrigued me. Though I have not not read his work through words of Plato I have come to appreciate the socratic method that we often use to find the root cause.
I always wondered how and why people behave and do the things they do….. one might think the answer is very complicated and you need to very intelligent person to find it or there is no answer at all. But now it feels like the answer is so simple that we totally ignore it. The only reason we cannot explain everything is that we don’t know all the facts. Once the facts are placed in front of us the answer will be clear to us.If we use the Socratic approach , start by being completely ignorant about the topic of concern, eliminate the influence of assumptions and opinions which may divert us from truth.
One must always ask the most basic question ….. ” why? ” till we are convinced that we have finally found the true answer which is often buried in the details.
Application of this philosophy are plenty, the “5 Why ” often used in Lean Methodology is an good example. It is the foundation of most detective work too. But the most important is you can use it in your day-to-day life and understand why things are happening the way they are…. helping you to be aware rather than just exist!
