Socratic irony

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Or maybe it was a different problem: In classic Socratic irony, there has to be somebody who doesn’t get the joke, and I had a sneaking suspicion it might be me.

From Salon • Feb. 11, 2017

Carlyle's grotesque is a mode of his golden silence, a sort of Socratic irony, in the indulgence of which he laughs at his readers and at himself.

From Thomas Carlyle by Nichol, John

That is, Carlyle uses irony in the common English sense; the Socratic irony, the irony of the "Modest Proposal."

From A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

The Socrates of the Philebus is devoid of any touch of Socratic irony, though here, as in the Phaedrus, he twice attributes the flow of his ideas to a sudden inspiration.

From Philebus by Jowett, Benjamin

Many of these, with a sort of Socratic irony, gave themselves ludicrous names, or names expressive of ignorance.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg