According the Christopher Philips, author of
Socrates Cafe, there are now about 150 Socrates Cafes across the United States (we have one, held twice a month at a local bookstore in Bellingham, Washington). The Lyceum School, a 26-pupil, private Catholic academy in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of a few emerging schools dedicated to teaching by the Socratic method, stressing small-group, student-led discussion rather than lectures. In
Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way, author Tom Morris claims that comic book heroes like Superman, Spiderman, and Batman raise important philosophical questions, as they entertain, like social responsibility, friendship, destiny, and usefulness. Writer Cornel West, in his book
Democracy Matters, argues that democracy, as a way of life, requires citizens who are Socratic, and who are willing to raise unsettling issues through Socratic interrogation and critical thinking. The question of how we should lead our lives is being raise in small groups all over the world, like The Merry Philosophers in Orlando, Florida, the Socrates Diners in Melbourne, Australia, and the Socratic Seminars in Germany and Holland. If Starbucks catches the marketing potential of this trend, might we see a Hemlock Latte featured on their menu?
For many years, the Socratic method has been a staple in legal training, partially resurrected in education, and even adapted for business managers and salesmen. It is also prominent in the practice of cognitive therapy. Each of these disciplines has adapted the Socratic method to fit its own objectives. For an overview of the Adlerian adaptation, see "
Adler and Socrates: Similarities and Differences" at
http://www.Adlerian.us/socrates.htm. The most skillful practitioner of Socratic questioning that I ever observed was my mentor Sophia de Vries. She had the extraordinary ability to ask just the right next question that would gradually lead a client to insight. This friendly, gentle, respectful, technique is what characterizes Classical Adlerian psychotherapy, contrasting it to more aggressive, didactic approaches.