September 3, 2024 by Donald Gorassini, howinfluenceworks.com
In this and subsequent blog posts, I discuss the contributions of Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to understanding social influence. These ancient ideas are still relevant and can help improve the contemporary world. You are invited to share your thoughts on the topic.
In this blog, I will describe the views attributed to Socrates (470-399 BCE).1 He influenced others through a form of dialogue. He would challenge the listener using what has come to be known as the Socratic method.2 In this approach, Socrates would question the basis for a listener’s beliefs. This could include tactics like requesting clarification of terms, challenging assumptions, exploring consequences, considering alternative courses of action, and articulating underlying values.
Consider someone who supports signing an organ donation card. In some locales, you can bestow your organs by signing a form on your driver’s licence application. If you die in a car accident, your organs can in a timely manner be harvested and transplanted into patients in need.
The Socratic method would subject the good sense of signing an organ donation card to a thorough examination. Only previously well-considered beliefs would survive the onslaught.
How might the Socratic method be applied in this instance? Before being confronted, a person might believe there is good reason to donate. The act could prolong someone’s life. What could possibly be wrong with that. A bit of further thought, prompted by Socrates or anyone using his method, would uncover some problematic aspects of organ donation. The money that funds transplant procedures could be better spent on prevention. Transplant procedures are exorbitantly expensive, apply to a small number of patients, and usually extend life for a short period of time. The research and techniques of preventive medicine could save lives on a wide scale and make transplantation obsolete. Why not direct the large amount of money and effort now spent on transplantation to the preventive enterprise?
You can see in this example how the Socratic method might shake a commitment to what seems at first blush a virtuous course of conduct. It could in this case lead to an even more virtuous course of conduct.
Socrates developed the Socratic method to encourage self-reflection and promote virtuous living, leading to a better society. As in the above scenario, this could result in advancements in medicine and increased life expectancy for individuals.
Socrates criticized the use of social influence for anything other than improving humanity. Unlike his contemporaries, the Sophists, who taught persuasive techniques solely for the sake of persuasion, Socrates believed in using persuasion to promote moral and intellectual growth. For example, while the Sophists may have taught people how to manipulate others for personal gain, Socrates focused on engaging in meaningful dialogue to uncover truth and enhance understanding.3
Here would be an example of sophistry: A hospital hires a public relations firm to promote its organ transplantation program. Accordingly, the firm produces a touching commercial of a parent coming home to spouse and children after receiving a donated liver. The ad says nothing about the cost of the procedure or the implications regarding preventive medicine. The sophistry consists mainly in the selective use of information to support a perspective.
The Socratic method and sophistry differ sharply in application and result. It was believed by Socrates that the open embrace of truth-seeking would produce the best outcomes for society in the long run. If the example above is any indication, he was correct. Questioning a virtuous practice, namely prolonging a few lives for a short time, and devising a more virtuous practice, namely prolonging many lives for a long time, reflects a definite improvement.
What do you think? Is influence for virtue the only valid application of influence? When might persuasion for its own sake, and the information control entailed, be appropriate if at all? Is the Socratic ideal of influence for the sake of truth and virtue prominent in modern culture? Or is Sophistry the dominant practice?
Footnotes
- See, for example, Socrates, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ↩︎
- The Socratic method was described in Plato’s dialogues, particularly in “Apology,” “Meno,” and “Phaedo.” ↩︎
- Plato discussed the Sophists in several of his dialogues, including “Protagoras,” “Gorgias,” and “Sophist.” These dialogues explore Socrates’ interactions and debates with various Sophists, who were known for their teachings on rhetoric and philosophy. ↩︎
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