Socrates seems to have thought of the "truth" what author Laurie King, in Jackie's "sincere" thread, thought about the "purity" beneath the wax.

It is always there, it has always been there and will always be there. It is simply overlain with the wax of impurities or untruths.

Philosophy, the love of wisdom, was for Socrates itself a sacred path, a holy quest -- not a game to be taken lightly. He believed -- or at least said he did in the dialog Meno -- in the reincarnation of an eternal soul which contained all knowledge. We unfortunately lose touch with that knowledge at every birth, and so we need to be reminded of what we already know (rather than learning something new).
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He said that he did not teach, but rather served, like his mother, as a midwife to truth that is already in us! Making use of questions and answers to remind his students of knowledge is called maieutics (midwifery), or the Socratic method.

http://snipurl.com/gly0

There you go again, plutarch, preaching to the carpals and the newbies alike.

How do you manage to nearly always manifest that tone of righteousness?

The Lone Haranguer

How do you manage to nearly always manifest that tone of righteousness?

Probably because some people misinterpret my intentions.

Just because I see a parallel between Laurie King's perception of "purity" beneath the wax and Socratic "maieutics" does not mean that I subscribe to his vision of "the truth".

The fact is, I don't.

I don't think Laurie King got it right either.

Is "The Lone Haranguer" your mission statement, snoot?

snoot-i trust plutarch about as far as i can throw a lead brick.. (and i think there exist an uneasy truce right now..)

and yeah, his pendantic, "purer than thou tone" comes across as snotty.. but..
for the moment--he is confining himself to misc. and he is not making 20 comments (OK,so not 20 just 2 or 3 or half dozen) in a row, commending himself on how clever he is.

this is an open BB, and well no one is perfect.
Yeah, its easy to suspect him.. but ...

since this is an unmoderated forum, and since at this point, plutarch is 'playing nice'--let's not bitch and moan about every post he makes.

maieutics is a word..(so it's on topic) (and could almost be discussed in Q & A about words)

interesting how a guy being a midwife to knowledge is valuable thing, but modern medicine (mostly men) gots its start destroying the profession of midwife in the real world.

to be Midwife to anything now day is not to be a valueable coach, helper, partner.. the profession of midwife is no one of esteem..

nowdays, a sports rather than a maternal analogy would be more apt. what with sports managers and team coaches gettign million $ saleries, and midwifes all but non existent.
and rarely are they (or their services) considered acceptable for insurance purposes. Only those who have independant means can afford to pay for a midwife- and then the expenses are out of pocket.. insurance companies, (and hospitals) don't consider them 'health professional' and you can not submit claims to pay for their services.

a sea change in subtext to the word..

> rarely are they (or their services) considered acceptable for insurance purposes. Only those who have independant means can afford to pay for a midwife- and then the expenses are out of pocket.. insurance companies, (and hospitals) don't consider them 'health professional' and you can not submit claims to pay for their services.

thankfully, here in Vermont, we're a little more enlightened about midwifery.

but I agree about other salaries. believe me, I agree...

My sister-in-law is a midwife and from what I have gathered about the profession in the UK, it seems to be very different from the way you describe the US scene, of troy.

For example: The midwife is the senior professional attendant at over 75% of births in the UK.
(http://www.radmid.demon.co.uk/whatis.htm)

Bingley

midwifery is making a comeback in US-but a minority of births are attended by midwives (my new grandson was just delivered with the help of a midwife, but...)

But--it is certainly true that the profession of midwife was destroyed as MEN began to form 'scientific' medical schools (the often barred women).

i don't have any figures, but i would be surprized if 10% of births in US are attended by midwives.