In the tradition of my odd little threads that people mostly ignore, I bring you

Two Ways of Putting On Socks

Method 1

You grasp the sock at the top and pull until the lower section is properly seated.

Method 2

You bunch up the top section of the sock so that you are now grasping the lower section, pull that onto your foot, then unbunch the top.

(There are some other methods that have their uses, such as turning the sock inside out, and then right-side-outing it from the toe up, but for reasons that might become clear I'm going to treat this as a variation on the second method. Also I believe there is a similar range of practices for donning hose, and that extensive rolling is an option here because of the light material; again a variation of Method 2.)

First a clarification: using Method 1, you're probably not really done once the foot is seated (although this is a matter of personal preference), because the top section is stretched out too much, making the sock somewhat too tight unless you push it back down a little.

Method 1 has other flaws: it is harder to line up the lower section of the sock so that it seats properly, and sometimes results in a misalignment that requires lots of twisting, and sometimes even that is not enough and you're forced to start all over; it also puts considerable strain on the sock and I suspect contributes to earlier sock-failure (especially if there is a noticeable transition between the top and bottom sections).

I think Method 2 is only really practical for standard crew-length socks -- once you get to something that reaches your knee, it's just too much material to bunch up. (But recall the exception with hose and the inside-out method.)

Why on earth am I writing about this?

One way of approaching a problem, such as a philosophical problem, is to have some method or approach, often simple enough to be completely understandable (so no surprises), that at least in theory might eventually produce a solution, and then push that method or that system as hard and as far as you can, hoping at some point the goal will heave into view and even be reached. This is my Method 1. You start at the very beginning of the sock, settle on your method, your system -- i.e., pulling -- and then you just do that until you can't do it anymore. Then you look and see if it worked -- is the damn thing lined up right? Did I tear at by pulling so hard?

Method 2 is a little sneaky. It starts in the middle and doesn't pay much attention to the top section of the sock at all except to keep it out of the way. Instead it focuses first on lining up the bottom section properly and getting it seated before setting the top of the sock in order.

There are approaches to philosophical problems that are similarly sneaky. Instead of just leaping in with some preferred method and hoping it gets the kind of result you want, it starts by paying much more attention to the result. 'If we did have a theory that fulfilled the conditions we've accepted, what would that look like? Can there even be such a theory, or do we need to make some adjustment to our plans before we begin the work proper?' It leaves the filling in of details until later.

In a sense, this is like leaping over the entire path and checking out the destination, making sure it's ready to receive guests, and once everything there is in order, going back to see what kind of path we can fill in. It's also in a sense starting in the middle, but with the intention of getting the entire back half taken care of first -- the middle all the way to the end. And you need not go back and adjust after, or correct the sort of messes Method 1 can leave you with; once you've done the bottom half, either's it not done at all (as in sock-failure) or it's done right and you can leave it alone.

Method 1 has a tendency to produce a complete result that's somewhat imperfect or unsatisfying and requires further adjustment. On the plus side, it's simpler, faster, and for an old pair of socks used to your feet, it often works right off the bat.