Socratic Interrogation Protocol
State a conviction you hold. Socrates will question it — one exchange at a time.
“The unexamined belief will not survive.”
What do you believe?
e.g.
The interrogation
The Tribunal is Socrates and one conviction of yours, across five exchanges. No panel, no crowd — just the elenchus: the method of question after question that either sharpens a belief or breaks it.
You do not present an argument; you defend one. Each answer you give becomes the material for the next question.
01
State the conviction
One belief you hold and are willing to defend — about yourself, about others, about what matters.
02
Five exchanges
Socrates questions; you answer; he questions the answer. Contradictions are not pointed out gently — they are pursued.
03
The belief leaves changed
It survives sharper than it entered, or it collapses honestly. Either outcome is the point.
From an interrogation
“You have defined courage three times tonight, and each time it was a different animal. Which one do you intend to live by tomorrow?”
— Socrates, fifth exchange of a tribunal on courage