How do we actually do philosophy? According to Socrates, philosophy consists in asking the right questions — questions which force us to examine our presuppositions and see whether they hold up to scrutiny. In order to reach a deeper understanding, we must first discover that we did not actually know what we thought we knew — we must reach a state of aporia, or confessed ignorance. Socratic questioning is not simply a tool for winning arguments, but for advancing our common understanding.