A session to practice maieutics and question students' certainties
Curriculum reference: Terminale Philosophy Program — Knowledge / Truth / Justice
Total time: 45 minutes
Present Socrates in 399 BC: he has just been sentenced to death by Athenian democracy for impiety and corrupting the youth. He refuses to flee. Reminder: he never wrote anything — everything comes from Plato. Distribute the timeline and the main notions of the trial.
Students question Socrates on Parlova. Encourage questions that force Socrates to define a concept (virtue, justice, soul) — then give a concrete example. Socrates will often respond with a question. The teacher can play devil's advocate and challenge the answers.
What does Socrates say about virtue? Justice? Death? Identify how he systematically turns questions back. Build on the board the structure of a Socratic reasoning: definition → counterexample → reformulation → new definition.
Each student formulates in one sentence: 'After this dialogue, I know that I still don't know…'. This Socratic formulation forces a personal synthesis. Open up to the notion of a philosophical essay as a written extension of maieutics.
12 questions ready to use in class — students can also come up with their own.
What is virtue? Give me a definition that applies to all cases.
You say 'I know that I know nothing' — but then, why do you spend your life questioning others?
What is justice? Is it just that Athenian democracy condemns you to death?
You refuse to flee before your trial. Isn't that sacrificing your life for an idea?
How do you distinguish what we truly know from what we think we know?
Can virtue be taught — or are we born virtuous, or do we become so through experience?
What is the soul? How is it different from the body? Does it survive death?
Athenian democracy has condemned you. Do you still believe it is the best political system?
Your students — Alcibiades betrayed Athens, others went astray. Is that your failure?
Why have you never written anything? Aren't you afraid your thought will disappear with you?
What is happiness — and must one be just to be happy?
If you could start over, would you do anything differently? Or does philosophy leave you no choice?
From your teacher area, duplicate this activity to adapt it: add your own teaching documents (PDF, textbook extract…) — Socrates will rely on them and quote the exact passage to the student — and choose a reliability level for the AI: Restricted, Semi-restricted or Open. A blank student worksheet, without the answers, can still be printed separately for the lesson.
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