Socratic Club

The Oxford Socratic Club was a student club that met from 1942 to 1972 dedicated to providing an open forum for the discussion of the intellectual difficulties connected with religion, and with Christianity in particular.

The club was formed in December 1941, at Oxford University, by Stella Aldwinckle of the Oxford Pastorate and a group of undergraduate students. A student by the name of Monica Shorten had expressed a need for such a club. The society was to follow the practice of Socrates to "follow the argument wherever it led them." As all inter-college clubs at Oxford had to have a "senior member of the university" as a sponsor, Aldwinckle implored C. S. Lewis to be its first president. Lewis enthusiastically served as president from 1942 until he left for Cambridge in 1954. Basil Mitchell succeeded Lewis as president in February 1955. The first meeting was held on 26 January 1942, and the club disbanded in 1972.

The Oxford Socratic Club met on Monday evenings during term from 8.15 pm to 10.30 pm, with many undergraduates lingering long afterward. Many of the most notable figures of Oxford University presented or responded to papers, including G.E.M. Anscombe, Antony Flew, Iris Murdoch, Austin Farrer, A.J. Ayer, D.M. MacKinnon, C.E.M. Joad, E.L. Mascall, Gabriel Marcel, Frederick Copleston, I.M. Crombie, Basil Mitchell, R.M. Hare, Michael Polanyi, Gilbert Ryle, J.L. Austin, Dorothy Sayers.

Commenting on the Socratic Club at Oxford, C.S. Lewis stated, "In any fairly large and talkative community such as a university, there is always the danger that those who think alike should gravitate together into 'coteries' where they will henceforth encounter opposition only in the emasculated form of rumor that the outsiders say thus and thus. The absent are easily refuted, complacent dogmatism thrives, and differences of opinion are embittered by group hostility.  Each group hears not the best, but the worst, that the other groups can say.”

Famous debates
24 January 1944, C.E.M. Joad and C.S. Lewis, "On Being Reviewed by Christians."

This debate involved a presentation by Joad that was based on his recent book, published in November 1942, God and Evil, which contained his arguments for theism, but also against Christianity. Joad was at this time taking a closer look at Christianity because of the evil he saw in Nazi Germany. He cited Lewis many times in his book, which was undoubtedly one of the reasons he was invited to address the Socratic Club. Joad later became a Christian.

2 February 1948, Elizabeth Anscombe and C. S. Lewis, "The Self-Refuting Nature of Naturalism"

Catholic philosopher G.E.M. Anscombe debated Lewis about a portion of Lewis's 1947 book, Miracles, known today as the Argument from Reason, in which he stated that since naturalists claimed all of nature to be irrational, that would make the claim of the naturalists also irrational and therefore contrary to reason (for example, that if there is no God, if nature is the product of chance, then how can a human brain offer anything but chance observations that have no authority?). She claimed that he had mistakenly equated non-rational causes with irrational causes and confused the concepts of cause, reason, and explanation. John R. Lucas later helped in a rerun of this debate, which ended up vindicating Lewis. Victor Reppert's book, C.S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea, further supports Lewis's original argument.

Meetings of the Socratic Club

 * 1942
 * Can Science Render Religion Unnecessary? H. A. Hodges


 * 1943
 * Science and Faith, Frank Sherwood Taylor;
 * Is the New Testament Reliable Evidence? Richard Kehoe


 * 1944
 * On Being Reviewed by Christians, C. E. M. Joad;
 * Materialism and Agnosticism, J. K. White, Gordon Preston;
 * The Grounds of Modern Agnosticism, H. H. Price;
 * Has Psychology Debunked Sin? L. W. Grensted, Barbara Falk


 * 1945
 * Marxist and Christian Views of the Nature of Man, Archibald Robertson, Emile Cammaerts


 * 1946
 * Can Science Provide a Basis for Ethics? C. H. Waddington, Austin Farrer;
 * The Limits of Positivism, Friedrich Waismann


 * 1947
 * Did the Resurrection Happen? R. E. Davies, T. M. Parker


 * 1948
 * The Self-Refuting Nature of Naturalism, Elizabeth Anscombe, C. S. Lewis;
 * Rudolf Steiner and the Scientific Outlook, Alfred Heidenreich, Frank Sherwood Taylor;
 * Atheism, J. B. S. Haldane, Ian M. Crombie

Trinity Term, 1949
 * 25 April	Can Science Create Values? J. Bronowski, Basil Mitchell
 * 2 May		Some Remarks on Analysis, Personality, and Religion, G. J. C. Midgley
 * 9 May		Christianity, the Church, and the Churches, Oliver Tomkins, T. M. Parker
 * 16 May	       Psychoanalysis and Religion, Anita Kohsen, R. S. Lee
 * 30 May	       Value Judgments, R. M. Hare
 * 6 June		The Morality of Dangerous Devices, I. M. Crombie, N. J. P. Brown

Michaelmas Term, 1949
 * 10 Oct		Are Tautologies Really Necessary? P. J. Fitzgerald, C. S. Lewis
 * 17 Oct		Agreement and Disagreement in Ethics, A. C. Ewing, R. M. Hare
 * 24 Oct		Philosophy and Psychoanalysis,	John Wisdom, Leycester King
 * 31 Oct		Some Displaced Questions, E. L. Mascall, A. G. N. Flew
 * 7 Nov		Hindu Speculation and Jung, Basil de Mel, Vernon Katz
 * 21 Nov	       Can Science Be Creative? C. H. Waddington, Frank Sherwood-Taylor
 * 28 Nov	       Physics and philosophy, Lord Cherwell, J. C. Stuart

Hilary Term, 1950
 * 23 Jan		The Nature of Faith, J. P. Hickinbotham, E. L. Mascall
 * 6 Feb		Certainty, L. A. Grint, C. D. Rollins
 * 13 Feb	       Grounds for Disbelief in God, Archibald Robertson, C. S. Lewis
 * 20 Feb	       Freudian Psychology and Christian Faith, B. A. Farrell, R. S. Lee
 * 27 Feb	       The Relation of Psychical Research to the Scientific Method, N. M. Tyrell, L. W. Grensted
 * 6 Mar		Marxism, Douglas Hyde, V. A. Demant

Trinity Term, 1950
 * 1 May		Can We Trust the Gospels? D. E. Nineham, G. E. F. Chilver
 * 8 May		Biology and Theism, A. Rendle Short, A. C. Hardy
 * 15 May	       Theology and Verification, A. G. N. Flew, Bernard Williams
 * 22 May	       The Spirit of Religious Intolerance, Gervase Mathew, H. C. Carpenter
 * 29 May	       Criteria in Ethical Judgment, G. E. Hughes, S. E. Tomlin
 * 5 June		Personalism, J. B. Coates

Michaelmas Term, 1950
 * 16 Oct		God and History, Michael Foster, C. S. Lewis
 * 30 Oct		Explanation: Scientific and Philosophical, David Mitchell, S. F. Mason
 * 7 Nov		Is Theology a Science? G. C. Stead, Austin Farrer
 * 13 Nov	       Reason and Rationalism in Religion, R. S. Lee, A. P. d’Entreves

Hilary Term, 1951
 * 22 Jan		The Problem of Freedom, J. Ward-Smith
 * 29 Jan		On Clearing Up Philosophical Muddles, Bernard Williams
 * 12 Feb	       Psychopathology and Sin, Seymore Spencer, Victor White
 * 30 Apr	       The Philosophical Basis of Marxism, Marcus Wheeler, S. F. Mason

Michaelmas Term, 1951
 * 22 Oct		Appreciation of Linguistic Analysis, I. T. Ramsey
 * 5 Nov		Do the Mystics Know? Thomas Corbishley

Hilary Term, 1952
 * 28 Jan		Imago Dei and the Unconscious, Oswald Summer, R. W. Kosterlitz
 * 4 Feb		The Buddhist Approach to Philosophy, Auguste Purfurst, Basil Mitchell
 * 25 Feb	       The Gospels—History or Myth? Christopher Evans, P. H. Nowell-Smith
 * 3 Mar		Rational Existentialism, E. L. Mascall, Iris Murdoch
 * 10 Mar	       Cosmology and Theism, G. J. Whitrow, E. L. Mascall

Trinity Term, 1952
 * 28 Apr	       The Notion of Development in Psychology and Its Bearing Upon Religion, R. S. Lee
 * 5 May		Creation Never Was, Michael Scriven
 * 12 May	       Christianity and Humanism in Western Culture, Christopher Dawson, I.T. Ramsey
 * 19 May	       What Is Theology? H. D. Lewis, J. J. Hartland-Swann
 * 26 May	       Subjective and Objective Language, J. Z. Young, Gilbert Ryle
 * 2 June		The Stability of Beliefs, Michael Polanyi, C. T. W. Curle
 * 9 June		Guilt and Freedom, John Wisdom, J. L. Austin

Michaelmas Term, 1952
 * 17 Oct		Contemporary Philosophy and Christian Faith, Basil Mitchell
 * 24 Oct		The Logic of Personality, Bernard Mayo, R. M. Hare
 * 3 Nov		A Living Universe, D. E. Harding, C. S. Lewis
 * 10 Nov	       A New Humanist Alternative to Christ and Mary, H. J. Blackham, Iris Murdoch
 * 17 Nov	       The Ethic of Belief, Brand Blanshard, H. H. Price
 * 24 Nov        Topic Unknown, J. N. Findlay
 * 1 Dec		Soloviev and His Idea of Good and Evil, Nicholas Zernov, E. W. Lambert

1953
 * The Gospels: Myth or History? R. Creham, A. R. C. Leaney

1954
 * The Anatomy of Atheism, E. W. Lambert, John Lucas

Other Socratic Clubs
Though the Oxford Socratic Club disbanded, several Socratic Clubs now exist in colleges and universities. Among these are Socratic Clubs in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Vanderbilt University, Oregon State University, the University of Gonzaga, Trinity Bible College, Samford University (founded in 2007) and the Queen's University of Belfast, in Northern Ireland.

As of 2007 there has been an Oxford University Socrates Society with similar aims to those of the Socratic Club.

The Queen's University of Belfast Socratic Club, founded in 2013, holds similar aims to that of the original at Oxford.

There are also branches of the society at West Buckland School in Devon and King Edward's School at Bath, where these branches are referred to as "The Socrates Club" and have the same aims as the original Oxford University "Socratic Society" of C.S. Lewis.