Socrates Ignorance

Aiden Falgout Mrs. LeCompte English III – 1st hour 22 March 2024. The Corruption of Ender Children are the building blocks of society, and when kids are corrupted everything goes downhill. Children are very malleable to the influence of their superiors. The novel "Enders Game" has loads of negative influence in it.

Dating back to the 1600s, ancient Greeks developed something that would change the world forever, democracy. As for the United States of America, we have two main parties, Democratic and Republican. Presidential elections are the start of a country disagreement. For years and years people have disagreed on many topics because of their own opinion about how things should properly be taken care of. As of today, Donald Trump is the U.S. President and has been since the year 2016. During the time of the election, everyone was talking about Trump. He was an unusual man that often spoke without a filter. Many Americans were surprised that a man with no political or military experience would be their president and run this country. As of today, there

He goes on to tell the story of why he began to challenge the intellectuals of society in the first place. Socrates tells of a deceased friend by the name of Chaerephon who “… went to Delphi and boldly asked the oracle to tell him whether… there was anyone wiser than I [Socrates] was, and the Pythian prophetess answered that there was no man wiser.” This troubles Socrates, and he contemplates what this statement really means. Unable to come to a sound conclusion, he devises a plan to get the answer he seeks: “I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go to the god with a refutation in my hand. I should say to him, ‘Here is a man who is wiser than I am; but you said that I was the wisest.’” After meeting with a man who had a reputation for being wise, however, Socrates departed without the man wiser than he. He left the man, thinking to himself: “Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows.” After encounters with multiple men who possess supposed wisdom, Socrates realizes the prophecy must be correct: “… but the truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise; and in this oracle he means to say that the wisdom of men is little or nothing…” Socrates proceeds to question Meletus in front of the councilmen. He questions Meletus about the charges he has brought against him and his reasons

Upon hearing the oracles answer, Socrates was confused and did not know the meaning of the Oracle’s answer. At that time, before Socrates understood the meaning of the oracle, he was aware that others were wiser that him, he just didn’t know that admitting it himself would prove that he was actually the wisest. In order to try to understand the meaning, Socrates needed to search for proof of someone wiser than him, until he finally figured out that admitting his own ignorance was the true meaning of being the wisest (Navia

“The lowest level is ‘not being wise, but seeming wise, especially to oneself.’” During his trial, Socrates explains his conquest to understand human wisdom and search to discover what the oracle meant which said, “[Socrates is] the wisest man in the world.” (Apology 21b) He set out to understand what the oracle meant by questioning the people who had well known reputations for wisdom. When he interviewed them, he noticed that in they only appeared to be wise when in fact they weren’t.

Mia Signorita Ingabire Professor Francis K. Peddle DPHY1210 November 13th 2014 Misology The term misology is presented in Plato’s Phaedo. The dialogue Phaedo is centered around Socrates final days and death. The Athenian jury found Socrates guilty of corrupting they youth and believing in other gods then the Greek ones.

While attempting to disprove his infamous reputation of teaching deceptive doctrines and deluding his students, Socrates argues that the origin of this reputation actually stems from his incomparable wisdom. Through three anecdotes about being unable to find a person wiser than he is, Socrates justifies the Oracle of Delphi’s claim that he is the wisest, explaining that his wisdom is completely based on his conscious ignorance and, finally, that the denial of false wisdom leads to the quintessential goal of life – reflection. Socrates begins by explaining his initial reaction to the Oracle of Delphi’s claim, recalling his failed quest to find another person who is wiser, thus proposing the claim to be true. The first person that Socrates visited “was a politician […] who had the reputation of wisdom”; however, when Socrates confronted him about his apparent lack of intelligence in speech, “the consequence was that he hated

Socrates, the skeptical man he is, does not believe the Oracle and decides to converse with people that are considered wise within Athens. He questions these supposedly wise people including the likes of poets, writers, craftsmen, and politicians. Socrates says that a craftsmen, “…because of his success at his craft, thought himself very wise in other most important pursuits, and this error of theirs overshadowed the wisdom they had” (27). The following example extends to all of the people that Socrates met with. Although they were experienced in a particular subject area, they pretended to possess knowledge far beyond the field that they specialized in.

Socrates tells a story in an attempt to explain this. It starts with a man named Chaerephon, a well respected citizen of Athens, who had died recently. Chaerephon goes to the Oracle at Delphi and "he asked if there was anyone wiser than" Socrates. (Apology, Plato, Philosophic Classics, page 23) The Oracle, of course, says that there is no man wiser than Socrates. When Socrates heard of what the Oracle said, he begins to wonder what riddle is hidden in those words. He knows that he is not a wise man, so he knows that he cannot be the wisest of men. Not knowing what then Oracle truly meant, he goes out to investigate this. He went to a man who was reputed to be very wise. He thought that he would find a man who is wiser than himself, and thus point out to the Oracle its mistake. Socrates finds that this man actually knows nothing that is worth knowing. When Socrates tries to point this out to the man, he and the bystanders become angry. Socrates says that he is wiser than this man because, while they both know nothing, Socrates realizes this. The other man thinks he knows things that he does not, while Socrates knows that he knows nothing. Socrates claims that he has done this with many men, and that each time, he came to the same result: the man knows nothing and thinks he knows everything, and Socrates has made the man angry. In continuing to do this, Socrates made many men angry, and that anger turned into

Socrates begins by discussing why his previous accusers accused him of what he did. “I will try to show you what has caused this reputation and slander...is none other than a certain kind of wisdom” (20d, 23a). His next point on human wisdom, is that it is not very valuable; “That one of you, O human beings, is wisest who, like Socrates, has become cognizant that in truth he is worth nothing with respect to wisdom” (23b). Socrates still believes however, that thinking about and examining wisdom is extremely important to live a fulfilling life.

During his speech, Socrates speaks in a very plain and conversational manner. He points out that he has no experience with the law courts and haven’t been in a law court all of his life. Socrates then says that he will not speak in the way the sophists do, with rhetoric, but instead will speak with honesty and directness. At the first part of the speech, he explains that his style comes from a prophecy by the oracle at Delphi which claimed that he was the wisest man in Athens. He then explains that because of the oracle’s prophecy, he tried to find someone who is wiser than him. He went to all the people who had great reputations for wisdom and people who claimed to have a lot of knowledge and found out that they didn’t really know the things they claimed to know. Socrates then concluded that he must be wiser than other men because he is aware that doesn’t know everything. Socrates explains that in order to spread his wisdom, he considered it his duty to question the people who

The Oracle of Delphi tells Socrates that he is the wisest man. After hearing this Socrates believed that he must find someone wiser than he is. He becomes a pest and goes on asking everyone questions to try and disprove the Oracle of Delphi. To do this he travels all over Athens questioning everyone from the poets, to the politicians, after each stop he concluded that the people he spoke to were in fact not wise, even though they believed themselves to be wise. Socrates uses constant questioning to find out if there is anyone out there who is indeed wiser than he is. His constant questioning would later be called the Socratic Method. Socrates soon finds out

In Apology, Socrates first claims himself as the wisest man by talking about his friend Chaerephon’s conversation with Delphi: “he asked if any man was wiser than I, and the Pythian replied that no one was wiser”. (Apology, 21a) Socrates then elaborates about his claim by comparing his wisdom with the politician he visits: “It is unlikely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I don’t know, neither do I think I know”. (Apology, 21d) What sets Socrates apart is his conscience of his own ignorance.

In order to do this, he goes about Athens questioning those he believes to be wiser than him, including politicians, poets, and craftsmen. Upon this questioning, he discovers that even those perceived as the wisest actually know far less than one would expect. Even the craftsmen, who have much practical wisdom in their respective fields, see their success as merely a tribute to their vast knowledge of many subjects. This, Socrates claims, is not true wisdom. Human wisdom can be described as the acknowledgement and acceptance that one does not know everything, nor is one capable of knowing everything. This, however, does not mean that people should sit idly by, never pursuing wisdom, for it is still vital to the attainment of a good life, which should be the ultimate goal of mankind.

Socrates finds that once evaluating his own life, he begins to have a new and deeper thought on life itself.  Through his life, he has been held to be by many people, one of the wisest men to exist.  The Oracle of Delphi had even spoke on this when asked by Chaerephron if there was even a wiser man, then Socrates (Plato, trans. 1871).  This didn’t stop him in the search to find the wisest man, asking politicians and such around him, and even decided to talk with one who he had believed was to be wiser then him.  After conversing with him, however, he saw that