MAIEUTIC/meɪˈjuːtɪk/

Bringing a person's latent ideas into clear consci

The maieutic method is Socratic: a person is engaged in a dialogue by a questioner until frustration caused by challenges to his ideas leads him to dissatisfaction with his settled convictions and makes him refine his views. In practice, of course, the questioner knows the answers already and leads the dialogue by supplying clues to allow the other person to work them out.

The word is from Greek maieuesthai, to act as a midwife, from maia, a midwife. Socrates compared himself to a philosophical midwife, who through his questioning could induce the delivery of superior understanding in the other person, because the knowledge was already present in that person’s mind.

Though the word is first recorded in the seventeenth century, it has become very much more common in modern times, especially in discussions of philosophy, education and psychotherapy.

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