Socratic Club

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The Oxford Socratic Club was formed in December 1941, at Oxford University, by Stella Aldwinckle and a group of undergraduate students, in order to provide "an open forum for the discussion of the intellectual difficulties connected with religion and with Christianity in particular" (The Socratic Digest, No. 1 (1942–43), p. 6). 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 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, Iris Murdoch, Austin Farrer, A.J. Ayer, D.M. MacKinnon, C.E.M. Joad, E.L. Mascall, Gabriel Marcel, F.C. Copelston, I.M. Crombie, Basil Mitchell, R.M. Hare, Michael Polanyi, Gilbert Ryle, J.L. Austin, Dorothy Sayers, and many others. (Walter Hooper, "Oxford's Bonny Fighter," in Remembering C.S. Lewis, Ignatius Press, 1979)

Socrates — the Greek philosopher after whom the club was named — exhorted human beings to "follow the argument wherever it led them."