Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The art of giving birth (i. e., clearness and conviction) to ideas, which are conceived as struggling for birth.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The art of giving birth to ideas

Etymologies

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Examples

  • His poetry is a kind of maieutics - an act of deliverance.

    Nobel Prize in Literature 1984 - Presentation Speech 1984

  • In any case, while I think the practical aspect is of note, the Socratic point is more significant; minds cannot be forced, so we who take reason seriously move people by some sort of maieutics or not at all.

    Links of Note 2005

  • In any case, while I think the practical aspect is of note, the Socratic point is more significant; minds cannot be forced, so we who take reason seriously move people by some sort of maieutics or not at all.

    Archive 2005-06-01 2005

  • The method of Socrates had two divisions, known as _irony_ and _maieutics_.

    Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education Ontario. Ministry of Education

  • The answer of Socrates was: "Know thyself" and "Knowledge is virtue", i.e. a knowledge drawn from personal experience, yet possessing universal validity; and the means prescribed by him for obtaining such knowledge was his maieutics, i.e. the art of giving birth to ideas through the method of question and answer, by which he developed the power of thinking.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese-Fathers of Mercy 1840-1916 1913

  • _maieutics_, consisted in leading the pupil, by a further series of questions, to formulate the correct opinion of which the first hastily-given answer was only a fragment.

    Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education Ontario. Ministry of Education

Comments

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  • A wise man instructing young folk

    Succeeds with a humorous stroke.

    He knows a few tricks

    Promoting maieutics,

    Like cracking an ingenious joke.

    September 15, 2015