ANDY NORMAN - UNMAKING of WISDOM - NEW SOCRATIC MODEL

 In a series of two articles in FREE INQUIRY, Andy Norman explains why his NEW SOCRATIC model is more useful than the Platonic model.I’m not a philosopher, but I believe his paradigm shift has many implications that will rewire many disciplines. 

In his words,The two features of the New Socratic model—its subsumption of the Platonic model, and its straightforward handling of basic belief—bode well. For as historians and philosophers of science have noted, successor paradigms are generally constrained by the need to cast a coherent narrative explaining their predecessor’s successes and their failures (MacIntyre, 2006). And this is precisely what the New Socratic model provides: a compelling account of why the Platonic model could have seemed so natural and intuitive, and a clear view of where and why that model breaks down. The Socratic model duplicates the successes of the Platonic paradigm, while also addressing the anomalies that long distressed that paradigm.

The rationalist project is not dead. Yes, a disastrous conceptual error hobbled it for two and a half millennia. But there is no reason why it cannot again become a powerful force for enlightenment and progress. Perhaps it will remake our collective understanding of reason, and spark a movement that brings widespread wisdom to the challenges of tomorrow. But will it happen? That depends. An adequate understanding of reason can only illuminate the path; it is up to us to travel it