The Oxford Socratic Club was a student club that met from 1942 to 1954 dedicated to providing an open forum for the discussion of the intellectual difficulties connected with religion and with Christianity in particular.
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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 January 26, 1942, and the club disbanded in 1972.
The Oxford Socratic Club met on Monday evenings during term from 8.15pm to 10.30pm, 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
January 24, 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.
February 2, 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
Trinity Term, 1949
April 25 Can Science Create Values? J. Bronowski, Basil Mitchell May 2 Some Remarks on Analysis, Personality, and Religion, G. J. C. Midgley May 9 Christianity, the Church, and the Churches, Oliver Tomkins, T. M. Parker May 16 Psychoanalysis and Religion, Anita Kohsen, R. S. Lee May 30 Value Judgments, R. M. Hare June 6 The Morality of Dangerous Devices, I. M. Crombie, N. J. P. BrownMichaelmas Term, 1949
Oct. 10 Are Tautologies Really Necessary? P. J. Fitzgerald, C. S. Lewis Oct. 17 Agreement and Disagreement in Ethics, A. C. Ewing, R. M. Hare Oct. 24 Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, John Wisdom, Leycester King Oct. 31 Some Displaced Questions, E. L. Mascall, A. G. N. Flew Nov. 7 Hindu Speculation and Jung, Basil de Mel, Vernon Katz Nov. 21 Can Science Be Creative? C. H. Waddington, Frank Sherwood-Taylor Nov. 28 Physics and Philosophy, Lord Cherwell, J. C. StuartHilary Term, 1950
Jan. 23 The Nature of Faith, J. P. Hickinbotham, E. L. Mascall Feb. 6 Certainty, L. A. Grint, C. D. Rollins Feb. 13 Grounds for Disbelief in God, Archibald Robertson, C. S. Lewis Feb. 20 Freudian Psychology and Christian Faith, B. A. Farrell, R. S. Lee Feb. 27 The Relation of Psychical Research to the Scientific Method, N. M. Tyrell, L. W. Grensted Mar. 6 Marxism, Douglas Hyde, V. A. DemantTrinity Term, 1950
May 1 Can We Trust the Gospels? D. E. Nineham, G. E. F. Chilver May 8 Biology and Theism, A. Rendle Short, A. C. Hardy May 15 Theology and Verification, A. G. N. Flew, Bernard Williams May 22 The Spirit of Religious Intolerance, Gervase Mathew, H. C. Carpenter May 29 Criteria in Ethical Judgment, G. E. Hughes, S. E. Tomlin June 5 Personalism, J. B. CoatesMichaelmas Term, 1950
Oct. 16 God and History, Michael Foster, C. S. Lewis Oct. 30 Explanation: Scientific and Philosophical, David Mitchell, S. F. Mason Nov. 7 Is Theology a Science? G. C. Stead, Austin Farrer Nov. 13 Reason and Rationalism in Religion, R. S. Lee, A. P. d’EntrevesHilary Term, 1951
Jan. 22 The Problem of Freedom, J. Ward-Smith Jan 29 On Clearing Up Philosophical Muddles, Bernard Williams Feb. 12 Psychopathology and Sin, Seymore Spencer, Victor White Apr. 30 The Philosophical Basis of Marxism, Marcus Wheeler, S. F. MasonMichaelmas Term, 1951
Oct. 22 Appreciation of Linguistic Analysis, I. T. Ramsey Nov. 5 Do the Mystics Know? Thomas CorbishleyHilary Term, 1952
Jan. 28 Imago Dei and the Unconscious, Oswald Summer, R. W. Kosterlitz Feb. 4 The Buddhist Approach to Philosophy, Auguste Purfurst, Basil Mitchell Feb. 25 The Gospels—History or Myth? Christopher Evans, P. H. Nowell-Smith Mar. 3 Rational Existentialism, E. L. Mascall, Iris Murdoch Mar. 10 Cosmology and Theism, G. J. Whitrow, E. L. MascallTrinity Term, 1952
Apr. 28 The Notion of Development in Psychology and Its Bearing Upon Religion, R. S. Lee May 5 Creation Never Was, Michael Scriven May 12 Christianity and Humanism in Western Culture, Christopher Dawson, I.T. Ramsey May 19 What Is Theology? H. D. Lewis, J. J. Hartland-Swann May 26 Subjective and Objective Language, J. Z. Young, Gilbert Ryle June 2 The Stability of Beliefs, Michael Polanyi, C. T. W. Curle June 9 Guilt and Freedom, John Wisdom, J. L. AustinMichaelmas Term, 1952
Oct. 17 Contemporary Philosophy and Christian Faith, Basil Mitchell Oct. 24 The Logic of Personality, Bernard Mayo, R. M. Hare Nov. 3 A Living Universe, D. E. Harding, C. S. Lewis Nov. 10 A New Humanist Alternative to Christ and Mary, H. J. Blackham, Iris Murdoch Nov. 17 The Ethic of Belief, Brand Blanshard, H. H. Price Nov. 24 Topic Unknown, J. N. Findlay Dec. 1 Soloviev and His Idea of Good and Evil, Nicholas Zernov, E. W. Lambert1953
The Gospels: Myth or History? R. Creham, A. R. C. Leaney1954
The Anatomy of Atheism, E. W. Lambert, John LucasOther Socratic Clubs
Though the Oxford Socratic Club disbanded, several Socratic Clubs now exist in colleges and universities. Among these are Socratic Clubs at 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. Founded in 2013.
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.