I think it highly plausible that Socrates was not actually trying to 'trick' his students (and certainly not for self aggrandizements), but was actually trying to 'draw them out' so he could begin his teachings from the peripheries of their specific understandings... another way to look at it is that... perhaps Socrates was not 'playing dumb' and laying low so as to attack his opponent for the Sophist version of dominance that he so hated... but was in fact using a listening technique that enabled him to more effectively reach his students... each at their own level... ?waddyathink? ttr