BENJAMIN J. GRAZZINIried. It is not clear, however, why Socrates needs to keep Theaetetus talk-
ing, nor why he offers the account of psychic maieutics in order to do
so. As Scott Hemmenway puts it: “In its particular place in the dialogue
... the very richness of the description seems at fi rst sight to be incom-
mensurate with the immediate needs of the conversation.”^17
Or rather, there are reasons for Socrates to keep Theaetetus in-
volved in the conversation, and for Socrates to be concerned with his
ability to account for himself. The problem is that those reasons appear
to be at odds with the principles of psychic maieutics. At the beginning
of the dialogue, Eucleides notes that the conversation he has recorded
took place “a little before” (142c6) Socrates’ death. At the end of the
dialogue, Socrates says that he must go to be indicted on the charges
brought against him by Meletus (210d1– 3). In this light, it is no surprise
that Socrates is concerned with how he appears to others. It seems that
the discrepancy between Socrates’ self-understanding and the Athe-
nians’ understanding of him brings Socrates to trial and ultimately con-
victs him. Recall the “fi rst charges” recounted by Socrates in the Apology:
“There is a certain Socrates, a wise man, a thinker on the things aloft,
who has investigated all the things under the earth, and who makes the
weaker argument the stronger.”^18 Thus, it also makes sense that Socrates
would be concerned with the issue of knowledge on this of all days.
For, presumably, if he can account for knowledge, for the possibility of
knowledge in the face of confl icting appearances, then he would be in
a better position to account for himself before the jury—or at least to
understand why he is bound to be condemned.^19
It is also odd that, although Socrates’ account of psychic maieutics
appears to be offered with an eye toward his upcoming trial, he insists
that Theaetetus “not tell on [him] to the others” (149a6– 7), that is, to
keep this explanation of Socratic philosophizing a secret. Why, if this is
supposed to be a genuine account of what Socrates does and why, should
it be kept secret? This aspect of the account of psychic maieutics also ap-
pears less than familiar in light of Socrates’ claim in the Apology that if
someone says that “he has ever learned from me or heard privately any-
thing that everyone else did not, know well that he does not speak the
truth” (33b6– 8). Socrates does not tell anyone else about his career as
a psychic maieute, and he asks Theaetetus not to tell anyone else; the ac-
count of psychic maieutics is something that is not heard by everyone.
What is more, these are Socrates’ concerns, not Theaetetus’. One
of the essential features of midwifery is that midwives are those who
are past the age of childbearing. Midwives must once have been fertile,
insofar as their ability to serve as midwives depends on that experience,
“human nature being too weak to acquire art with respect to things of
which it has no experience” (149c1– 2). Yet midwives cannot at the same