ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an explanation of how an understanding of the philosophy of Socrates can restore the spirit of criticism in the twenty-first century. Socratic thinking and a Socratic education put both tradition and contemporary or modern and progressive orthodoxies to the test of criticism. A modern-day Socrates would challenge all of the received opinions of teachers and educationalists. These include the belief that education is about working for ‘social justice’ and the safeguarding obsession that makes ‘safety’ the overriding value in education and wider society. The dismissive and contemptuous tone reflects Plato’s continuing anger at what happened to Socrates. A famous example of the more conversational but philosophically profound use of the elenchus is the ‘table turning’, ‘recoil’ or ‘exquisite argument’ in the Theaetetus. The ‘exquisite argument’ has had many interpretations, as it seems to be a flawed and weak argument compared with others in the Theaetetus.
