Curiosity as Non Sequitur of Socratic Questioning

Résumé

Although Socratic questioning is sometimes said to stimulate curiosity, analysis of the dialogues reveals that curiosity cannot be seen to follow from the questioning method. Other factors, including the felt importance of knowing, may account for curiosity but constitute preconditions rather than results of questioning. The dialogue texts show that the most successful episodes from the pedagogical point of view involve respondents who were already curious at the start. Hence a critical examination may be needed of the traditional grounds for a common educational notion, that teacher questioning-like Socrates' arouses curiosity and inquiry in the student.