What They're Arguing About
Socrates meets the young, mathematically gifted Theaetetus and immediately begins a mental interrogation to discover what knowledge actually is. Using his famous 'midwifery' technique, Socrates helps the youth deliver several theories — ranging from the idea that knowledge is just physical sensation to the claim that it is 'true opinion' plus an explanation. Along the way, they dismantle the Protagorean notion that whatever a person perceives is automatically true for them. By the end, every definition is discarded as 'wind-eggs,' leaving Theaetetus empty-handed but significantly more modest about his own intellect. Socrates then departs for the King Archon’s porch to face his fatal indictment.
Speakers
- Socrates
The self-described intellectual midwife who claims he knows nothing.
- Theaetetus
A brilliant, snub-nosed Athenian youth and future soldier and mathematician.
- Theodorus
A geometrician from Cyrene who introduces his best student to Socrates.
- Protagoras
A sophist whose 'Man is the measure' theory is thoroughly scrutinized.
What it's really about
- Maieutics
- The art of assisting the birth of ideas through questioning.
- Epistemology
- The ongoing search for a definition of knowledge.
Why it's memorable
- Socrates describing his mother's profession of midwifery as the model for his own philosophical method.
- Theaetetus being carried away from battle with dysentery while his youthful brilliance is remembered.
What they conclude
Socrates admits his art only proves that the youth’s ideas were not worth bringing up, but insists the boy will be humbler for the attempt.
For your book club
- Whether knowledge can ever be truly defined through the process of elimination.
- The validity of Protagoras’s claim that individual perception is the ultimate truth.