Maieutics (My-oo-tics)
A brief look at the first of three common Socratic methods of Inquiry
In last week’s post, I suggested 10 reasons for studying philosophy. The first reason in my list asserts that the ability to philosophize (to study or practice philosophy) is the mark of an educated mind. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, to be educated is to be brought up, reared, or instructed in particular subjects or in a particular way.
Thus, it seems that to be educated in this sense is to be instructed in the proper modes of pursuing wisdom, which is why I am working through these ideas systematically and publicly—to be better instructed myself.
As the love and pursuit of wisdom, philosophy takes on many forms or methods; and, for my purposes, I am going to group these forms or methods into three categories: Inquiry, Reasoning, and Contemplation.
Each has its own advantage or purpose and each also assumes certain criteria are present (e.g., Maieutics assumes truth is known but unarticulated). One imperative of educating ourselves is to recognize in which form or category our pursuit of wisdom is functioning. To this end, I’ll begin my own inquiry by unpacking the categories and then methodically explaining and demonstrating a method or form within a particular category.
In the category of Inquiry we can identify three common Socratic methods: Maieutics, Dialectic, and Elenchus. All three are in the general sense “dialectical” but each have a slightly different function and purpose.
Maieutics is treated in Plato’s Sophist, but is perhaps best represented in his Theaetetus, where he compares this method of inquiry to that of midwifery (148e - 151a).
In Plato’s dialogue by the same name, Socrates introduces Theaetetus to his approach to philosophic inquiry by suggesting he is the son of “the good hefty midwife, Phaenarete—a name that means “she who brings virtue to light.” By comparing himself to a midwife, he makes several notable comparisons:
A midwife is beyond the child-rearing years herself; thus, now possessing the likeness of Artemis, the goddess of chastity and child-birth (among other things).
Because of her own experience, a midwife can best perceive whether her patient is pregnant or not.
Because of her craft, a midwife is able to bring on, delay, or miscarriage birth with her medicines and incantations
The midwife is also capable of proper matchmaking to know which couples are best situated to bring forth the best stock.
The midwife is able to determine if the birth is true or false offspring.
As we shall see, Socrates is not attending women and attempting to deliver their real babies. He is attending men and attempting to deliver the truth from their souls. Socrates tells Theaetetus:
Now my art of midwifery is just like theirs in most respects.The difference is that I attend men and not women, and that I watch over the labor of their souls, not of their bodies. And the most important thing about my art is the ability to apply all possible tests to the offspring, to determine whether the young mind is being delivered of a phantom, that is, an error, or a fertile truth. For one thing which I have in common with the ordinary midwives is that I myself am barren of wisdom. The common reproach against me is that I am always asking questions of other people but never express my own views about anything, because there is no wisdom in me; and that is true enough. And the reason of it is this, that God compels me to attend the travail of others, but has forbidden me to procreate. So that I am not in any sense a wise man; I cannot claim as the child of my own soul any discovery worth the name of wisdom. But with those who associate with me it is different. At first some of them may give the impression of being ignorant and stupid; but as time goes on and our association continues, all whom God permits are seen to make progress-a progress which is amazing both to other people and to themselves. And yet it is clear that this is not due to anything they have learned from me; it is that they discover within themselves a multitude of beautiful things, which they bring forth into the light. But it is I, with God’s help, who deliver them of this offspring. (150c-e)
The maieutic dialogue is similar to Socrates’ elenchus, but can be understood as being positive rather than negative. Where elenchus tries to deconstruct or challenge assumptions for the purpose of demonstrating knowledge is lacking or logic has failed, maieutics attempts to construct new ideas or uncover and recognize latent truth by answering potential objections and claims.