Friday, November 18, 2011

Maieutic

Maieutic \mey-YOO-tik\ , adjective;
1. Of or pertaining to the method used by Socrates of eliciting knowledge in the mind of a person by interrogation and insistence on close and logical reasoning

This word dates to the mid-1600's from Greek maieutikos ("of or pertaining to midwifery"), based on maieu ("to serve as a midwife").

Maieutics is based on the idea that the truth exists in the mind of every person, but it has to be 'given birth' (hence, the midwifery link) by answering intelligent questions.

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