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plural elenchi
(rhetoric) A technique of argument associated with Socrates wherein the arguer asks the interlocutor to agree with a series of premises and conclusions, ending with the arguer's intended point. quotations examples
The elenchus begins when an interlocutor makes some moral claim that Socrates wishes to examine. The argument then proceeds from premisses that express certain of the interlocutor’s other beliefs to a conclusion that contradicts the original moral claim under scrutiny.
1991, Thomas c. Brickhouse, Nicholas D. Smith, “Socrates’ Elenctic Mission”, in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, volume IX, Oxford University Press, pages 131–132