a. and sb. Also 7 -ick. [ad. L. Sōcraticus, ad. Gr. Σωκρατικός, f. Σωκράτης Socrates. So F. Socratique.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, Socrates the Athenian philosopher, or his philosophy, methods, character, etc.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Horace, Art Poet. (1640), 18. Thy matter first to know, Which the Socratick writing best can show.
1655. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1687), III. 120/2. He [Simon] is reported the first that used the Socratick Discourses.
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind, I. ix. § 19. 139. You may by Questions aptly proposed in the Socratic Method, lead him into a clearer Knowledge of the Subject. Ibid., x. § 14. 168. But there are three Sorts of Disputation … which are distinguished by these three Names, viz, Socratick, Forensick, and Academic, i. e. the Disputes of the Schools.
1778. Burnaby, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), II. 103. As philosophical and Socratic as ever.
1847. Emerson, Repres. Men, Plato, Wks. (Bohn), I. 307. Plato’s fame does not stand on a syllogism, or on any masterpieces of the Socratic reasoning.
1874. Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, x. 294. This hostility to music at dinner-parties was evidently a marked feature in the Socratic society.
B. sb. A follower of Socrates.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 408. Now to Plato we might here joyn Xenophon, because he was his Equal, and a Socratick too.
1875. Jevons, Money, 197. Aeschines the Socratic.
1886. Athenæum, 21 Aug., 230/2. The practical agreement of Plato and Aristotle, the two Socratics, on the main problems of ethics.
