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Mental Midwife: Therefore, he constituted himself a "mental midwife" and by skillful questioning helped ordinary men to bring to light the general ethical notions underlying the surface of casual everyday pronouncements. "Man cannot not philosophize; his only choice is to philosophize badly, that is unawarely, or well": this principle is implicit in the Socratic method. Thirdly, by introducing these general ideas, Socrates perfected the method of definition, noting both the resemblances and the differences and insisting on purging an idea from its associations with particular examples and popular misconceptions.
Mass investigations on the basis of age norms, however, have indicated only a slight relation between the mental and physical status of children. A spurt in mental growth does not appear to parallel the preadolescent spurt in physical growth. The pattern of mental development is similar in boys and girls, despite the difference in their rates of physical maturing.
It hardly comes as a surprise when we learn that the first of countless Picasso legends starts with his birth. The midwife had given him up for dead and gave all her attention to his mother. It was thanks to Don Salvador's presence of mind that Pablo was saved from suffocation. Don Salvador was his uncle and a qualified doctor. His method was both simple and effective: he blew some cigar smoke into the face of the little future genius - and that made him cry. This happened at 11.15 p.m. on 25th October 1881. |
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