Plato's Theaetetus: What Is Knowledge? › Socrates the Midwife

Before the inquiry begins, Socrates describes his philosophical method through a striking image. His mother, Phaenarete, was a midwife. Socrates claims to practice a similar art, but for ideas rather than babies. He helps others give birth to their thoughts, examines whether those thoughts are genuine or merely "wind-eggs" (unfertilized, empty), and assists in the labor of intellectual discovery. > I am so far like the midwife that I cannot myself give birth to wisdom, and the common reproach is true, that though I question others, I can myself bring nothing to light because there is no wisdom in me. This image captures something essential about the Socratic method. Socrates does not lecture or transmit information. He asks questions that force his conversation partners to articulate and examine their own beliefs. The knowledge, if it comes, must come from within. But Socrates also emphasizes that most intellectual offspring turn out to be stillborn. The midwife's job includes recognizing when a birth has failed.