THE SOCRATIC DIALECTIC AND POPPERIAN CRITICAL RATIONALISM: FOUNDATIONS FOR A CRITICAL PEDAGOGICAL PRAXIS IN THE TEACHING OF PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the convergences, tensions, and didactic-pedagogical implications between Socratic dialectics and Popperian criticism, articulating them with Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy and Stephen Toulmin's argumentation theory, with a view to grounding a critical pedagogical praxis for Philosophy teaching. Drawing on a theoretical-conceptual approach, the study examines how Socratic maieutics and elenchus, Popper's principle of conjectures and refutations, Freirean problem-posing dialogue, and Toulmin's argumentative model articulate into a coherent epistemological framework to guide educational practices that foster critical thinking, argumentative capacity, and the willingness to revise beliefs. The analysis shows that these four frameworks, despite internal tensions, converge in valuing error as a driver of learning, in the centrality of dialogue as pedagogical mediation, and in the rejection of dogmatism as an intellectual stance. The didactic-methodological implications indicate the feasibility of strategies such as Socratic seminars and conjecture-refutation sequences, assessed through Toulmin-inspired rubrics, as tools for forming critical subjects in secondary education. The study contributes to the fields of philosophy of education, epistemologies of education, and Philosophy didactics.