Michael Schidlowsky

Engineer & Philosophy PhD Candidate

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

Imagine the best possible school. What are the changes the school brings about in most of its students that makes it so great?

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

"If you see...someone who views Socratic rules of engagement as unimportant, or as outmoded, or as a joke, it is reasonable to think: here is someone our schools let down." (Farnsworth 226)

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

@AgnesCallard Can "What system is better" not block criticism but force us to question whether the criticism fits? We might criticize some cars for not growing food, and maybe it would be better if they did, but maybe if there are no cars that do we might realize the criticism isn't apt.

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

@AgnesCallard I think there are two mistakes here: 1. Not being able to buy love doesn't make money irrelevant to having love (e.g., house<family, but a homeless family suffers), 2. capitalism doesn't need you to value $$ more than everything (and no capitalist does).

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

@AgnesCallard @LorenzoMenajem What do you think they mean by "more philosophy in my life"? (E.g., familiarity with philosophical ideas, a more Socratic psychological orientation, more productive conversations, how to live a more fulfilling life).

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

On Plato's Dialogues: Seeskin (and Vlastos, Grote, Farnsworth, Mill etc.) seem to mostly agree that the content of the dialogues is not as valuable as their form. This should be made explicit to students when they are required to read them.

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

"The issue, then, is not whether the respondent can derive a correct definition from an existing set of beliefs—that is impossible—but whether he can articulate a definition compatible with those beliefs and accept the consequences to which it commits him." YESSS! (Seeskin, 1987)

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

What's incredible about the Socratic method is not that it leads to deeper understanding . . . even a child satisfies confusion with an earnest question. But what the child does not yet know is the psychological power that inquiry has to loosen the grip of rage and despair.

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

"The Socratic way seeks . . . comfort—with uncertainty, with fallibility, and with beliefs that are never more than provisional . . . the good life isn't a result reached by winning the struggle. The struggle is the good life." (The Socratic Method, Farnsworth, p34)

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

@FLOW_Coach These are great! Thanks for sharing.

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

When we inquire seriously we "come to see a complicated structure where we thought everything was simple . . . The net result is to substitute articulate hesitation for inarticulate certainty." (Russell, Inquiry into Meaning & Truth)

[David Pakman Show @davidpakmanshow]

Ward Farnsworth, Dean of the University of Texas Law School and author of the book "The Socratic Method: A Practitioner’s Handbook," joins David to discuss employing the Socratic method. Get the book: https://t.co/BEvOX88Dle

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

Listen to "Remembering what you read and study" by Michael Schidlowsky Podcast. ⚓ https://t.co/hqVk7wQSk6

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

To remember what you read, you need recall it, from memory, shortly after you read it ... "more is forgotten in one day without recall than is forgotten in sixty-three days with the aid of recall" (Spitzer, 1939)

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

"The Socratic method doesn't replace your current opinions with better ones. It changes your relationship to your opinions. It replaces the love of holding them with the love of testing them." —Farnsworth

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

Reading ISN'T learning. You forget most of what you read (no matter how interesting). To remember what you read you must attempt to recall it, from memory, very soon after you read it. That's the key. https://t.co/gQaWjq01x2

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

Do you, like the editor of the NYTimes Book Review, forget most of what you read? https://t.co/oSUIrDwQgz

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

Is this article right? Does re-reading help long-term retention? No. https://t.co/4Go2stFVtg

[Michael Schidlowsky @mschidlowsky]

Is this article right? Does re-reading help long-term retention? No. https://t.co/4Go2stFVtg