ABSTRACT
Since Socrates does not claim to know what he does not know, the purpose of the Socratic method is to move interlocutors from their unique form of ignorance to human wisdom, even if such wisdom is worth little. This chapter focuses on how and why Socrates employs the poetic toolkit of analogy, allegory, and other literary tropes, such as the famous analogy of the cave, in his elenchus. The chapter concludes that Socratic poetic inspiration–specifically storytelling–is not superfluous, but essential to the method’s aim to lead one to understand what one can claim to know.
