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The Socratic Elenchus

Socrates' trademark cross-examination, which exposes that someone who claims to know actually holds beliefs that contradict each other.

The elenchus is the Socratic method of refutation we see at work in Plato's early dialogues, dating to Socrates in the 5th century BCE. Socrates asks someone to define a virtue such as courage or piety, then draws out further admissions until they clash with the original claim — revealing that the confident expert never really knew what he professed. Far from mere point-scoring, it was meant to clear away the false conceit of knowledge, and it stands as a founding ancestor of philosophical dialectic and critical questioning.

How it traveled

  1. Charmides
    Athens · -399
    explains
  2. Apology
    Athens · -399
    explains
  3. Laches
    Athens · -399
    explains
  4. Euthyphro
    Athens · -395
    explains
  5. Protagoras
    Athens · -385
    explains
  6. Meno
    Athens · -385
    explains
  7. Symposium
    Athens · -385
    explains
  8. Euthydemus
    Athens · -384
    explains
  9. Lysis
    Athens · -380
    explains
  10. Republic
    Athens · -375
    explains
  11. Lesser Hippias
    Athens · -375
    explains
  12. Theaetetus
    Athens · -369
    explains
  13. Sophist
    Athens · -360
    explains
  14. Memorabilia
    Athens · -354
    explains
  15. Gorgias
    Athens · -348
    explains
  16. Alcibiades 1
    Athens · -348
    explains
  17. Greater Hippias
    Athens · -348
    explains
  18. Hipparchus
    Athens · -348
    explains
  19. Theages
    Athens · -348
    explains
  20. Lovers
    Athens · -348
    explains
  21. Minos
    Athens · -348
    explains
  22. Rhetoric
    Chalcis · -335
    explains
  23. De sophisticis elenchis
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  24. Tusculanae Disputationes
    Formiae · -43
    explains
  25. Institutio Oratoria
    Rome · 95
    explains
  26. Discourses
    Nicopolis · 108
    explains
  27. Noctes Atticae
    Rome · 180
    explains
  28. Vitae philosophorum
    — · 240
    explains
  29. Abarbanel on Torah
    Naples · 1505
  30. Likutei Moharan
    Breslov (Ukraine) · 1802

Key passages(20)

Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 165a1↗explains

In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 167a21↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 167b21↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 168a23↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 168b11↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 168b27↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 169a6↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 170a20↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 170a34↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 174a18↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 174b19↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 175a40↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 177a9↗explains

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] 181a15↗explains

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Anonymi In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Paraphrasis 10↗explains

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Anonymi In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Paraphrasis 15↗explains

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Anonymi In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Paraphrasis 17↗explains

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Anonymi In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Paraphrasis 26↗explains

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Anonymi In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Paraphrasis 6↗explains

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Anonymi In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos, In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Paraphrasis 9↗explains

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