What is the midwifery metaphor in Plato's Theaetetus?

In Plato's dialogue Theaetetus, Socrates describes his philosophical method as a form of midwifery, known as the maieutic method. Rather than imparting knowledge himself, Socrates uses targeted questioning to help his interlocutors give birth to their own understandings and evaluate whether their ideas are true or empty illusions. This process assists interlocutors in developing their comprehension through an analogy mirroring a child growing in the womb.

What we know

• In the dialogue Theaetetus, Socrates compares his questioning method to midwifery. [3]
• Socrates describes this maieutic method as helping interlocutors develop their understanding and lead it out of them, analogously to a child in the womb ready for birth. [3]
• The Socratic method begins with commonly held beliefs and scrutinizes them for consistency to bring participants closer to the truth, and this questioning process is also called elenchus or the maieutic method. [2, 3]

Where to go next

• a case in pointWhat are the three definitions of knowledge explored in the Theaetetus?
• the bigger pictureHow does the Socratic method work in other Platonic dialogues?
• how we knowWhat is the significance of the Anonymous Commentary on Plato's Theaetetus?
• whoWho was Theodorus of Cyrene in Plato's dialogue?
• what followedHow did Edmund Gettier influence modern interpretations of Plato's epistemology?
• an unexpected connectionHow did a 1901 papyrus discovery revive ancient commentary on Plato?An ancient Greek commentary on Plato's Theaetetus was entirely unknown to history until a single papyrus roll was discovered in 1901.

Sources

• [1]Theaetetus (Wikidata Q846241) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Theaetetus (dialogue) · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Socratic method · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Anonymous Commentary on Plato's Theaetetus · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Dialectic · CC BY-SA 4.0