And a failure to think Socratically, in the sense just described, is at the root of most of what’s foolish and infuriating in our ethical and political culture. People routinely say things that they don’t really believe, or wouldn’t believe if they thought longer about it. By “wouldn’t believe,” I mean that what they say isn’t consistent with other things they believe more deeply. Or they wouldn’t say it if the facts were changed in ways that they think should be irrelevant.
