maieutic 的词源

“与苏格拉底通过提问帮助人们发现潜藏于心中的观念有关”，这个词最早出现在1650年代，源自希腊语 maieutikos，在哲学中是一个比喻用法，字面意思是“助产的”，来自 maieuesthai，意为“充当助产士”，而 maia 则是“助产士”的意思（参见 Maia）。

By putting leading questions on general or well-known facts, Socrates, by easy steps, to the surprise and delight of his subject, would bring him to the enunciation of some principle hitherto unknown or undeveloped in his mind. This is called his Maieutic: a term which Socrates himself suggested, likening his relation to the development and birth of ideas in the mind to that mid-wife office which his mother performed for the body. Both this feature and the illustration afforded fine material for jest to Aristophanes, who, in his usual comic way, proceeded to literalize the metaphor. [Samuel Ross Winans, "Xenophon's Memorabilia of Socrates," Boston: 1890]

苏格拉底通过对一些普遍或众所周知的事实提出引导性问题，逐步引导他的对话者，令他们惊讶和愉悦，最终使他们表达出一些之前未曾意识到或未发展出的原则。这被称为他的助产术（Maieutic）：这个词是苏格拉底自己提出的，他将自己在思想发展和诞生中的角色比作他母亲为身体所做的助产工作。这一特点以及这个比喻为阿里斯托芬提供了丰富的笑料，他以自己一贯的幽默方式将这个比喻进行了字面化处理。[塞缪尔·罗斯·维南斯，《色诺芬的苏格拉底回忆录》，波士顿：1890年]