Cooper, Rachel Valerie (2017) Socratic questioning in alien landscapes? Journal of Applied Philosophy, 34 (5). pp. 724-729. ISSN 0264-3758
Glover_coopercommentary.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.
Download (272kB)
Abstract
This commentary considers the role of Socratic questioning in Alien Landscapes? I discuss the three roles that Glover sees Socratic questioning playing in psychiatry: 1. Questioning to clarify problems, 2. Questioning to treat symptoms, 3. Questioning to reconstruct lives. Although I am broadly sympathetic to the idea that philosophical conversations can help us conceptualise, and deal with, mental distress, I raise two concerns. First, is there any way of providing courses of transformative Socratic questioning cheaply (e.g. through manualisation)? Second, how close is the connection between helping individuals to develop systems of belief and value that fit epistemic norms and helping them to live flourishing lives?