Episode Details

Who was the empirical one? Was it Aristotle or Plato?

Plato was ontological and Aristotle was empirical, correct?

Plato is defining how things are constructed and Aristotle is saying hey we have to practice.

…And then comes Socrates and he starts questioning everything and creates dialogue…

Plato points to the realm of Forms, εἶδος (eidos) or ἰδέα (idea): eternal structures, kinds, and patterns that shape how things are.

Aristotle looks at what you can observe, classify, and practice in the world, grounding knowledge in experience.

Socrates precedes both in method. He asks questions, he unsettles certainty, he insists on dialogue as the way to approach truth. His practice of questioning gave birth to Plato’s philosophy, and from Plato’s teaching, Aristotle’s empirical investigations followed.

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Isn’t it beautiful to go back to source, to go back to the classics and understand our way of thinking? We have lost that capacity because we are not questioning how things are made. We are not questioning how forms and structures are conformed. And we are not really using the power of observation and correlation to classify them because we are not using our own experience to know. And worst of all, we are not using questioning as a practice to learn more about how this ontology and this empiricism can create a space of curiosity and unfoldment that will lead to a proper dialogue where new things will emerge.

And this is where dialogue is born. Dialogue is interested in listening to many views, in understanding many perspectives. So then, the questioner, the one who questions, will have something new that is generated.

So yeah, what are you questioning these days? What is in your empirical mind?

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So what is Ontology?

Plato pointed to Forms. It is about being. It is about how things are constructed, how they exist, what makes them endure.*

So what is Empiricism?

Empiricism is about experience. It is about what we can observe, what we can classify, what we can test in practice. Aristotle grounded philosophy in what we can see and know through the senses.**

And what about Socratic discourse?

Socratic discourse is about questioning. It is dialogue. It is unsettling certainty. Socrates was not giving answers, he was creating the conditions for discovery, for something new to emerge in conversation.

So how can Society practice Ontology?

By asking what is the essence of things before rushing to use them. For example, in technology, before creating another app, we could ask what is its being, what does it add to human life, what is the structure it creates.

So how can society practice Empiricism?

By grounding decisions in lived experience, not just in abstractions. For example, in education, instead of only teaching theories, students could observe, classify, and test ideas in practice, so knowledge comes from experience, not from memorizing.

So how can society practice Socratic discourse?

By making dialogue central. For example, in politics, instead of shouting positions, we could create forums where citizens question each other, not to win, but to uncover. In family, it could be as simple as sitting at the table and asking each other questions without rushing to judgment, letting curiosity guide the exchange. In work, it could be teams asking why things are done a certain way and opening space for better solutions instead of just repeating patterns. In art, it could be dialogue between artist and audience, where the work itself becomes a question that invites many perspectives.

Socratic discourse means the question is as important as the answer, and new understanding comes from the exchange itself.

(So what is eloquence? From Latin eloquentia, from ex- meaning out, and loqui meaning to speak. I