Socratic irony

Or maybe it was a different problem: In classic Socratic irony, there has to be somebody who doesn’t get the joke, and I had a sneaking suspicion it might be me.

From Salon ● Feb. 11, 2017

Carlyle's grotesque is a mode of his golden silence, a sort of Socratic irony, in the indulgence of which he laughs at his readers and at himself.

From Thomas Carlyle by John Nichol

In this passage we can see, too, the supposed origin of another peculiar Socratic feature, the Socratic "irony."

From A Critical History of Greek Philosophy by W. T. (Walter Terence) Stace

The Socrates of the Philebus is devoid of any touch of Socratic irony, though here, as in the Phaedrus, he twice attributes the flow of his ideas to a sudden inspiration.

From Philebus by Benjamin Jowett

Many of these, with a sort of Socratic irony, gave themselves ludicrous names, or names expressive of ignorance.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg