How to Learn Like Plato

The Philosophical Dialogue is Actually a Good Learning Method

There are a lot of great ways to learn to ideas and add new concepts to your noetic web, but one of the best methods is often appreciated but seldom appropriated: the philosophical dialogue.

People often cite Plato as the forefather of Western philosophy—yes there others before him, but Plato’s dialogues really got things going in a major way. But while Plato is revered and his dialogues are widely read, not as many people have taken up his mode of philosophizing, but they should.

A philosophical dialogue is where a thinker personifies an idea and that personified idea discuss with others. The ideas converse, debate, compare and contrast, and are sometimes utterly refuted. This mode of philosophy is great way to better comprehend an idea because you are forcing yourself to come up with counterarguments but you’re doing it from an imagined new perspective. I’ve found this to be really helpful for generating criticism and responding to it, “what would someone who hates this idea say about it?”, “how do actual opponents respond to this view and what would they say to my rebuttal?”.

Good philosophy anticipates and deals with counterexamples in order to get clear on what’s actually being said and to makes sure arguments are actually sound. Creating a philosophical dialogue can help with this process and it’s a readily available skill—most of us already create fictional philosophical dialogues while we’re in the shower or driving with the radio off: “man, when he said this I really should have said that! Next time some one says x to me I’ll be ready with y”.

So since you already have this skill, you might consider honing it and using it to help you philosophize and help you learn and master new ideas. How should we go about creating philosophical dialogues? What are some of the best case studies? Well, I answer these and more in my latest ParkNotes video so definitely give it a watch: