SOCRATIC QUESTIONING

Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher.

(Yes. Thats him Miss Poh is trying to give a peck to.)

Socratic questioning is disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes, including: to explore complex ideas, to get to the truth of things, to open up issues and problems, to uncover assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish what we know from what we don't know, and to follow logical implications of thought. The Socratic Questions below can help you in scripting this radio podcast as they allow your characters to clarify ideas that are put forth during the interview and challenge one another. Use them wisely, and use them well! What do you mean by What is your main point? How does ____ relate to ______? Could you put that another way? What do you think is the main issue here? Is your basic point ______ or _____? How does this relate to our discussion/problem/issue? What do you think John meant by his remark? What did you take John to mean? Jane, summarise in your own words what Richard has said. Richard, is that what you meant? Could you give an example? Would this be an example: ______? Could you explain that further? of Would you say more about that? Why do you say that?

QUESTIONS OF CLARIFICATION

QUESTIONS THAT PROBE What are you assuming? ASSUMPTIONS: What is ***** assuming? What could we assume instead? You seem to be assuming _____. Do I understand you correctly? You seem to be assuming _____. How do you justify this as your position? All of your reasoning is dependent on the fact that

_____. Why have you based your reasoning on ____ rather than ____? What would be an example? Why do you say that? Why do you think that is right? What led you in that belief? How does that apply to this case? QUESTIONS THAT PROBE What would convince you otherwise? REASON AND EVIDENCE: How could we go about finding out if that is true? By what reasoning did you come to that conclusion? Who is in a position to know if that is the case? Are those reasons adequate? Could you explain your reasons to us? But is that good evidence to believe that? QUESTIONS ABOUT VIEWPOINTS OR PERSPECTIVES: What would someone who disagrees say? What is an alternative? How are Mary's and John's ideas alike? Different?

What are you implying by that? QUESTIONS THAT PROBE When you say ____ are you implying ____? IMPLICATIONS AND But if that happened, what else would also happen as CONSEQUENCES: a result? Why? QUESTIONS ABOUT THE QUESTIONS: Is this the same issue as? Does this question ask us to evaluate something? Is this question easy or hard to answer? Why?