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22The Value of Socratic Inquiry in the ApologyAncient Philosophy 43 (2): 337-355. 2023.What makes Socratic inquiry valuable? A standard response is what I term instrumentalism: Socratic inquiry is merely instrumentally valuable; it is valuable only because it produces valuable results. This paper challenges instrumentalism. First, I present two value puzzles for instrumentalists and argue that these puzzles are best solved by denying instrumentalism. Then, I survey passages in the Apology that point to the source of Socratic inquiry’s non-instrumental value.