Socratic Method Explained: From Debate Tactic to Path of Truth

The Socratic method is widely misunderstood as a clever technique for winning arguments or exposing contradictions. But at its core, it is not a tactic—it is a way of being. This lecture dismantles the common misconception of Socratic dialogue as mere dialectical skill, and reveals its true nature as a sustained commitment to living without illusion. Socrates did not ask questions to dominate a discussion—he asked them because he authentically recognized his own ignorance. His method was not an intellectual performance, but a spiritual discipline rooted in radical humility and inner integrity.

In this presentation, we explore why true Socratic inquiry cannot be practiced without being lived, and how the method collapses into manipulation when divorced from its ethical foundation. The goal of Socratic dialogue is not persuasion, but purification—of belief, of identity, and of the ego. The Socratic path is not something one uses—it is something one becomes.