Socrates as Midwife: Knowledge and the Theory of Recollection
In the Theaetetus, Plato invokes the analogy of the midwife in order to describe Socrates’ philosophizing in Athens; however, the analogy reveals as much about Plato’s theory of knowledge as it does about Socrates’ philosophical inquiry. While the midwife aids in childbirth, Socrates claims to be concerned with the labor of the soul and of testing the minds of men. Socrates insists that he cannot give birth to knowledge because the gods have barred from him participating in wisdom. However, like the midwife, Socrates helps to deliver knowledge in others; he describes its delivery as a painful and exhaustive process. The Meno is particularly exemplary of Socrates’ midwifery; however, Socrates’ discussion with Meno also reveals much about the Platonic theory of knowledge.
