"Slaves ourselves, it would be a mere pretension to think of freeing others." -Gandhi

-- By TanyaSehgal - 27 Feb 2009

The Socratic Method

I will begin by beating what some may think is a dead horse. An examination of the law school process reveals that there are numerous mechanisms create a culture antithetical to the pursuit of Truth, Justice, or Goodness.

For example, the Socratic method is perverted into a process where students’ memories and/or briefing abilities are tested (many questioners like to begin with the benign yet maddening, “What are the facts of this case?”) and the experience of being questioned becomes more performative than reflective with the student often being more concerned with whether he looked foolish as opposed to whether he learned something about himself. The real Socrates traveled in a small group (as opposed to in a class of 80 or 90) and used his method of questioning to facilitate to the pupil’s examination of his own beliefs about the Good and the Just. Socrates believed that the cultivation of virtue was the foundation of true knowledge and devoted himself to that cause. The law school, with its strict curve, imitation of Socrates’ method, and attachment to material wealth, has left no room to build character and virtue.

Why should we care about Socrates and his ideas?

Surely the perversion of the Socratic method as a pedagogical tool does not bind us to Socratic philosophy. While that is true, it is also true that many of us came to law school to learn about Justice, or, more broadly, came to law school to learn about how best to structure our society in order to make it Good.

If the facts of the case are derived the a process that is tragically human, and if the human sensibility is such that it comes to a result first and then uses its learned logic (in the form of “the law”) to justify that result, it follows that we need to be learning something more than how to discover the facts and how to apply the law in order to come to a just result. The pedagogy of the law school is premised on the assumption that it is our inchoate intellect that requires us to undergo the rigors of law school before we are fit to be judges or advocates. But, logic and rational thought always cuts both ways, and so it seems that in order to what’s right we must do something more.

What Socrates and the Buddhists have in common

Many progressive philosophy of education scholars, emphasize the need for primary and secondary schools to be holistic in their approach to education. While in India, I had the opportunity to visit one of India’s premier secondary schools, renowned both for its innovation and the professional success of its graduates. The Rishi Valley School is unique in its mission to encourage the child to explore his inner being, his relationship to others, as well as his intellectual capacity.

Though some might argue that this approach to education may make sense for a primary or secondary school as that schooling takes place during the child’s formative years, I think it is even more important for a law school to adopt a holistic approach to education for two reasons. First, changing social norms have extended the period of adolescence well past puberty. This prolonged adolescence has given rise to the phenomenon of the quarter life crisis where men and women in the early twenties are still grappling with the questions (i.e., “Who am I?” “What do I want out of life?” and “Who do I want to be?”) that used to characterize the adolescent period. The law school, in not explicitly addressing these questions, provides an answer anyway through its subtle messaging (note, for example, the screens around the law school announcing the fact that Columbia has, yet again, ranked number one in placing graduates in law firms). Second, a legal education imparts a set of tools that have tremendous power in shaping lives and social norms. To give power without simultaneously instructing on how to wield that power with integrity is dangerous for obvious reasons.

What we can learn from the Buddhists’ success.

What the Buddhists understand, is that in order to see the kind of success that really matters, we need to leave fearlessly, and to ensure that we act not because we want to gratify our egos, but because we believe what we are doing is right. Ironically (or, perhaps, not at all ironically) insecurity and egomania are as endemic in the public interest scene as the corporate scene. In both worlds, we impose shackles on ourselves based on what we think we need, and what will satisfy our desire to feel Important, and proceed mindlessly. We are taught the fear in and outside of the classroom, but the Buddhists, I would imagine, are able to strip away the artifices and experience law school in a less frenzied way.

My proposal, then, is to have to the law school become more Buddhist in its approach to teaching the law. We should move beyond the “Socratic” and enter a place where we facilitate experiential learning, reflection, and relationship building, a place where we give the normative greater weight than the discursive. A legal education should challenge the intellect, but a responsible legal education must penetrate the realm that ultimately controls most of what we do and how we do it. If we do not address the fear that guides so much of how we live our lives, we will never be able to reach that sublime place where we can be sure our thoughts and actions are aimed at creating a good society instead of simply serving ourselves.

---

You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" on the next line:

# * Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = TWikiAdminGroup, TanyaSehgal

Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of that line. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated list