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Journal of Philosophy
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712 THE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY
I. Since only moral truths are debated, the elenctic method is not
itself investigated elenctically. As a purely moral inquirer Socrates
abstains on principle from inquiry into the theory and method of
moral inquiry. For the same reason he does not use the elenctic
method to investigate the logical conditions of the right answer to
a "What is F?" question. These he lays down and demands com-
pliance. The interlocutor is not portrayed as having dissenting
views about them, but as needing instruction on their very rudi-
ments, which Socrates is ever ready to provide.
II. Observance of the "say what you believe" rule is vital, for this
is what marks off decisively the practice of elenchus from that of er-
istic. In the latter, where the prime object is to win the argument,
one can say anything that will yield a debating advantage. In the
former, where the prime object is to discover truth, one does not
have that option. One must say what one believes even to the detri-
ment of one's fortunes in the debate. One must prefer to be re-
futed-to lose the argument-if what one believes is not true. (Ex-
ceptionally, the rule may be waived: as a pis aller, to induce a
worsted opponent to stay in the argument and face the music.)
III. The premises q and r obtained at 2, from which Socrates de-
duces the negation of p at 3, are logically unsecured within the ar-
gument. Though Socrates has undoubtedly reasons for each of
them, he does not bring those reasons into the argument. He asks
the interlocutor whether he agrees, and if he gets agreement he goes
on from there. So in elenctic argument the question of referring to
a court of last appeal for settling philosophical disagreement does
not arise. In particular, there is no appeal to what Aristotle takes to
serve this purpose: None to those "primary," necessary, self-evident
truths which he regards as the foundation of demonstrative argu-
ment, and none to "what is commonly believed" (ta endoxa),
which is for Aristotle the foundation of dialectical argument. If
this fundamental feature of the elenchus is missed, it will be con-
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THE SOCRATIC ELENCHUS 713
'Richard Robinson, Plato's Earlier Dialectic (New York: Oxford, 1953), p. 28.
2Norman Gulley, The Philosophy of Socrates (New York: St. Martin's, 1968), pp.
43/4.
'Terence Irwin, Plato's Moral Theory (New York: Oxford, 1977), p. 37.
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714 THE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY
From A and B Socrates would naturally infer that his own set of
moral beliefs is the true set. For if it contained any false moral be-
lief then, by A, it would include beliefs entailing the negation of
that belief, and then it would be inconsistent, contrary to B. On
these assumptions, to prove the inconsistency of the opponent's
thesis with the premises to which Socrates had agreed would be to
prove that thesis inconsistent with the true set and, hence, to prove
it false.
For A and B Socrates could have had only inductive evidence-
probable inference from his own experience in elenctic argument.
The inference is doubly insecure-glaringly so in the case of A,
more insidiously so in the case of B: success in elenctic argument
need not show that one's own beliefs are consistent; it may show
only that the opponent's efforts to probe their inconsistencies have
been blocked by one's superior dialectical skill. Socrates could
hardly be unaware of these hazards. This must contribute to his
sense of the fallibility of his method, which I take to be the right
clue to his disavowal of knowledge even concerning beliefs that
have been "clamped down and bound" elenctically "by arguments
of iron and adamant" (Gorgias 508E-509A).
GREGORY V'LAST OS
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