The Socratic Method on Critical Thinking & Plato's Logic (song)

Song: The Socratic Method on Critical Thinking & Plato's Logic
Music, Lyrics & Voices: Ai

[verse1]
Upon the stone of Athens, where the wise
Drew out the truth from unsuspecting eyes,
A bearded master, with a questioning plea,
Would sow the seeds of doubt for all to see.

He did not lecture from a lofty chair,
But met the speaker in the common air.
"What is the good? What is the just?" he'd start,
And watch the swift defense fall all apart.

[chorus]
To a mind seeking truth beyond the shifting sand,
Plato's logic offered a guiding hand.
It starts with Forms, the perfect and eternal kind,
Which reason, not our fleeting senses, can find.

For from the perfect Idea, particulars derive,
Giving all things that exist their purpose to strive.
Through dialectic, our opinions are refined,
A soul's ascent to what is good and purely defined.

For shadows in the cave are not the truest sight,
But mere reflections of a higher, purer light.
Thus, by removing falsehoods and examining a claim,
One's soul remembers knowledge, from where all truths came.

[verse2]
The certain mind, with answers held so tight,
Found shadows creeping where it once saw light.
The first reply, so certain and so grand,
Was built on shifting, unsubstantial sand.

One more question, quiet and precise,
Revealed a new flaw in the edifice.
With each exchange, a deeper need to know,
And watched as false assumptions start to go.

[verse3]
The path is not toward a single creed,
But to uproot the most persistent weed.
To find the bias, hidden from the day,
And watch the fragile logic fade away.

No angry challenge, just a gentle prod,
To face the questions given by a god.
"Know thyself," a wisdom hard-won,
The final, naked thought, when all is done.

[bridge]
The student, emptied of their false display,
Now builds their reasoning another way.
On firmer ground, and with a careful hand,
A wise structure in a wiser land.