"Midwifery" is also called "Socratic Method" and "Socratic Question-and-Answer Method", which is carried out from beginning to end in the form of questions and answers between teachers and students, so it is also called "Question-and-Answer Method". Socrates was inspired by his mother as a midwife and used midwifery as an image metaphor for his teaching methods in conversations with young people.
Socrates' mother's midwifery is midwifery, and Socrates' "midwifery" is midwifery for the mind. Ancient Greeks often gathered in public places to discuss and debate public topics of interest with others, and reached a consensus through reasoning. But Socrates, like most people, will not try to convince others to believe his own point of view, or refute each other's point of view through a step-by-step approach, but will appear as an "ignorant" and listen to each other's point of view on a topic of common concern.
I, on the other hand, analyze the problem like anatomy by asking questions, and make the other party unable to justify myself through a keen speculative process, find out the mistakes in the original understanding, and then draw the correct conclusion under the guidance of Socrates. This is a process from phenomenon and individual to universality and generality. Socrates' application of midwifery is mostly included in the dialogue collection.
Socrates' question and answer method can be divided into four parts: satire, midwifery, induction and definition.
"Sarcasm" refers to asking the other party to talk about their views on a certain issue in a conversation, and then exposing the contradictions in the other party's conversation, so that the other party can admit that they actually know nothing about this issue.
"Midwifery" refers to helping the other person recall his knowledge by talking, just like a midwife helps a woman give birth to a baby.
"Induction" refers to a universal thing that gradually excludes individual special things from each other's understanding and reveals the essence of things through questions and answers.
"Definition" refers to the definition of things on the basis of induction.
Example: The dialogue focuses on the discussion process of justice between Socrates and Titus.
Socrates asked, "Is it fair or unfair to cheat, steal and humiliate others?" Otid Damu replied, "None of them are just acts, but they are all unfair acts."
Sue: What if a country wants to fight the enemy and lure the enemy into a trap by deception?
Europe: This kind of behavior is justified and can be included in fair behavior, but according to my meaning, the fraud mentioned above refers to cheating friends.
Sue: Now, let's think about a problem on the premise of friends: if a general fights the enemy and sees his army weak and depressed, he will deceive them and say, "Our reinforcements will arrive soon!" " "So the soldiers are full of energy and win, which is also an act of deceiving friends. Which category should they belong to?
Question: This is a fair act.
Socrates gave another example: cheat a sick child, tell him that the medicine is sweet and let him drink it; Steal a knife and gun from a psychotic friend in case he commits suicide. Titom thinks it's fair.
Sue: Didn't you just say that you can't steal or cheat your friends?
O: Socrates! I can't answer that. My conscience says that all my previous statements are incorrect.
As a result, Titom realized that his understanding of justice was contradictory and had to study again. Socrates persisted in truth, upheld justice, died a martyr and obeyed the laws of Athens all his life. Many of his remarks about truth and wisdom have had a far-reaching impact on later generations.