Neo-Socratic dialogue
A group of 5-12 people solve a specific ethical or philosophical or mathematical question with help of a facilitator. It takes 1-5 days.
Life-experience
Participants proceed from their own life experiences and analyse them (telling stories from real life) to find a general answer on a chosen question, to find the principles which are behind the experience
Mutual understanding
Participants focus on mutual understanding: with help of a facilitator they try to really understand each other and express themselves clearly and honestly
Striving for Consensus
The group creates and critically verifies its own philosophical/ ethical/mathematical content that everyone truly understands. The aim of a dialogue is to find a common truth, not only to share various ideas without a consensus.
How does it work?
Participants discuss the topic and their chosen experience and the facilitators lead them to fruitful results and control that the dialogue doesn´t become a simple chitchat.
No authority
No authority or academic knowledge is needed/wanted: the facilitator only focuses on the group dynamic, he/she is not involved in the content of the dialogue.
There is very little of theory and "ordinary philosophy". You do not have to know famous philosophers and their theories. It is only up to you what will be the content of the dialogue!
Facilitator
There is a specific role for the facilitator who takes care of the dialogue itself and concentrates his or her attention on the form and flow of the dialogue. This gives the participants the opportunity to focus purely on their thoughts and helps them to understand themselves and other participants.
Who does this and why?
At the moment, the Socratic Dialogue is used in various countries for various target groups: e.g. ethical themes for doctors in Spain, philosophical topics for prisoners in Germany, business topics for people in the Netherlands, and of course in schools: for pupils, students and teachers from different countries (Germany, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Great Britain...).