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