Maieutics
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Maieutics is a complex procedure of research introduced by Socrates, embracing the Socratic method in its widest sense. It is based on the idea that the truth is latent in the mind of every human being due to his innate reason but has to be "given birth" by answering questions (or problems) intelligently proposed.
The word is derived from the Greek "μαιευτικός," pertaining to midwifery.
According to Plato, several traits in Socrates' activity make it resemble a midwife's art, while the main difference between them seems to be that a midwife operates with people and Socrates with ideas. For instance,
- A midwife is experienced in giving birth, but exerts herself as such only when she is already barren.
- The midwife can detect which people would make a good couple, capable of having healthy children were they to mate. In fact she sometimes helps people to associate with one another.
- The midwife cuts the umbilical cord, dissociating the newly born from the circumstances of its origin (i.e., from its mother)
- Most importantly, the midwife must test by all means whether the newly born is "a false phantasm" or a "healthy baby, endowed with life and truth." The Socratic means to discern this is dialectics.
[edit] Pronunciation
If you syllabificate (you separate the word into syllables) you get the trisyllable [ma·ieu·tics]
Using the International Phonetic Alphabet the pronunciation of such word is:
\mā-'yü-tiks\
[edit] Sources
Plato. Theaetetus 149a ff.
