BENJAMIN J. GRAZZINIidentifi es wisdom and knowledge at the very beginning of the conversation
(145d11– e7). Also, one should bear in mind that Socrates does say that psychic
maieutics is an art (techne ̄). Just within his initial account of psychic maieutics,
Socrates explicitly refers to it as such at 149a4, 149a7, 150b6, 150c1, and 151b1.
This claim, too, should make one wonder about the apparent familiarity of
psychic maieutics as an account of Socratic philosophizing. Socrates is most
often distinguished from the sophists on the basis of his denial that he has any
technical knowledge that can be taught to another, and the fact that he neither
asks for nor receives any payment for his conversations. See Apology 19d8ff.,
33a5– b8. See also Scott, Plato’s Socrates as Educator, 13 – 49; David Roochnik, Of
Art and Wisdom: Plato’s Understanding of Techne (University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1996), esp. chap. 1.
- See note 3 above.
- See Kenneth M. Sayre, Plato’s Literary Garden (Notre Dame: University
of Notre Dame Press, 1995), esp. the appendix, “How to Read a Platonic Dia-
logue: Sunousia in Plato’s Theaetetus,” 197– 232. - An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon: Founded upon the Seventh Edition of
Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1889;
reprinted in 1999), 779. - Theaetetus 143 e6 – 144a1. When he fi rst begins to tell Socrates about
Theaetetus, Theodorus is grateful for Theaetetus’ ugliness, lest people think
that Theodorus speaks so highly of the boy out of love, and not from the appar-
ently disinterested standpoint of a teacher. - This warning is repeated at 160e6– 161a4 (although there it is The-
odorus who accepts this condition on behalf of Theaetetus). - While I do not thematize Theodorus’ role in the conversation, I do
not mean to suggest that it is unimportant. See Rue, “Philosopher in Flight,”
esp. 92– 100, for an account of how Socrates’ interaction with Theodorus enacts
the movement of drawing someone into philosophical activity. - For a different view on this likeness, see Ruby Blondell, “Reproducing
Socrates: Dramatic Form and Pedagogy in the Theaetetus,” Proceedings of the Bos-
ton Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 14 (1998): 213– 38. - At the beginning of their conversation, Theodorus praises Theaetetus
for being “like a fl ow of olive oil” (144b4). This image captures the ease with
which Theaetetus moves through his studies. At the same time, however, like
any liquid, a fl ow of olive oil will take the shape of its container. This seems to
be part of what is at stake in Socrates’ interest in Theaetetus’ background: the
extent to which Theaetetus conforms to his environment, and the extent to
which he might be able to maintain his own measure. - This is Fowler’s translation (Plato, Plato VII: Theaetetus and Sophist, trans.
H. N. Fowler, Loeb Classical Library [Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1921]). There appears to be a play on words in the Greek hoi tou holou stasiotai
between the sense of “those who stop the whole” and “those who stand for the
whole.” Fowler’s “partisans of the whole” picks up nicely on the sense of stasis as
civil war or factional dispute. - Scott, Plato’s Socrates as Educator, 21.