By Pierre Grimes, Ph. D.

Clearly, there is no need to professionalize Philosophical Midwifery; since no academic program can qualify anyone. The qualifications to the title of PM are simple. If you can do it you are one, if you can’t you’re not. The standards are public and available on demand. The questions that PM explore are available and can be adapted by anyone.

There should be no difficulty for anyone to determine whether or not someone is competent or not in this art since after any demonstration it can be compared and judged against the many examples of Philosophical Midwifery that we have on video tape, audiotape,pamphlets, a workbook, there is also the To Artemis Macintosh program that outlines in detail a philosophical midwife exploration and a book on the subject with an accompanying validation study that covers multiple issues of Philosophical Midwifery.

However, while there is no need to turn Philosophical Midwifery into a licensed profession or to create licensing procedures that does not mean that participating in training programs at our Academy have no merit.

Our programs are designed to include

  1. Carefully selected literature that reflects our fundamental concerns,

  2. offers a method to practice in depth individual explorations,

  3. and we supervise reviews of PM explorations,

  4. we encourage all participants in our program to participate in telephone conferences,

  5. to attend our regional conferences,

  6. and to demonstrate their art before judges who have themselves demonstrated a level of competency in PM.

It will be expected that members will conduct themselves in such a way that their interactions will manifest the ideals which are the subject of Plato’s Republic. Obviously, those who depart from these ideals will include that departure as the subject of their own PM explorations.

As a natural consequence of our art of PM it is expected that at some point in the training the Philosophical Midwife will become an intern at the APM and volunteer their service to help others learn the art. This function will be managed through the e-mail and supervised by the staff of APM. The difficulties and problems that the philosophical midwife experiences will become the subject of reviews and they will be explored by the member of the APM who is in charge.

As one develops in the art of PM it is expected that the participant will be managed and direct other members in a meditation retreat based upon the highest principles of Platonic philosophy. It is expected, that to some degree, the past meditation retreats will be used as a model and they will explore and help others understand and encounter the Idea of the Good, Beauty Itself, Providence, and The Good. The problems participants experience will become the subject of reviews during these sessions and they will be explored by the member of the APM who is in charge. These meditation retreats will be in addition to managing and directing PM seminars. It is understood that these will also be supervised and reviewed.

Successful candidates are given recognition and as a sign of that achievement are given the title of Masters in Philosophical Midwifery by our Academy.