Where Does Socrates Explain to Good Wisdom You Have to Understand What You Dont Know

Socrates and the Search For Wisdom

The arrogance of limited knowledge results in foolishness.

This is an excerpt from Plato's Amends, from Plato: Complete Works (an excellent edition that is part of the Not bad Books program).

To set the context, while this is known as the apology it comes from the word apologia, which means non an amends as we know information technology but "a defense speech in a legal proceeding." Socrates does not repent. At the historic period of seventy he had been indicted for breaking the law against 'impiety.' That is, he was declared to accept offended the Olympian gods (Zeus, Apollo, etc.). The crux of it was on how Socrates had carried out his philosophical work in Athens. In the apologia, Socrates defends his devotion to philosophy as well as the manner in which he pursued it. He argues that he was not offending them but rather following their lead "in making himself as adept a person as he can and encouraging others to do the same." The gods, later on all, desire that people shall be good. But what is good? That depends on "the quality of our understanding of what to care about and how to behave in our lives." The pursuit of this understanding was philosophy to Socrates.

… Consider that I tell you lot this because I would inform you lot almost the origin of the slander. When I heard of this answer I asked myself: "Any does the god mean? What is his riddle? I am very witting that I am not wise at all; what then does he mean by saying that I am the wisest? For surely he does not lie; information technology is non legitimate for him to do so." For a long time I was at a loss as to his significant; then I very reluctantly turned to some such investigation every bit this: I went to one of those reputed wise, thinking that there, if anywhere, I could refute the oracle and say to information technology: "This homo is wiser than I, but y'all said I was." Then, when I examined this man—there is no need for me to tell y'all his name, he was one of our public men—my experience was something like this: I idea that he appeared wise to many people and particularly to himself, but he was not. I then tried to show him that he thought himself wise, but that he was not. As a consequence he came to dislike me, and and then did many of the bystanders. So I withdrew and thought to myself: "I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows annihilation worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I practice not know, neither practice I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do non think I know what I practise not know." Later this I approached another man, one of those thought to be wiser than he, and I thought the same thing, and so I came to be disliked both by him and by many others.

Later that I proceeded systematically. I realized, to my sorrow and alarm, that I was getting unpopular, but I idea that I must attach the greatest importance to the god'south oracle, so I must go to all those who had whatever reputation for noesis to examine its meaning. And by the dog, gentlemen of the jury—for I must tell you the truth—I experienced something like this: in my investigation in the service of the god I institute that those who had the highest reputation were well-nigh the most deficient, while those who were idea to exist inferior were more knowledgeable.

I must give you lot an account of my journeyings every bit if they were labours I had undertaken to prove the oracle irrefutable. Subsequently the politicians, I went to the poets, the writers of tragedies and dithyrambs and the others, intending in their instance to grab myself being more ignorant and so they. Then I took up those poems with which they seemed to have taken most trouble and asked them what they meant, in order that I might at the same time larn something from them. I am ashamed to tell you the truth, gentlemen, but I must. Almost all the bystanders might have explained the poems improve than their authors could. I soon realized that poets do not etch their poems with noesis, but past some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who as well say many fine things without whatever agreement of what they say. The poets seemed to me to have had a similar experience. At the same time I saw that, because of their poetry, they thought themselves very wise men in other respects, which they were not. And then at that place again I withdrew, thinking that I had the aforementioned advantage over them as I had over the politicians.

Finally I went to the craftsmen, for I was conscious of knowing practically nothing, and I knew that I would find that they had knowledge of many fine things. In this I was not mistaken; they knew things I did non know, and to that extent they were wiser than I. But, gentlemen of the jury, the good craftsmen seemed to me to have the same fault as the poets: each of them, considering of his success at his craft, thought himself very wise in other virtually important pursuits, and this error of theirs overshadowed the wisdom they had, and then that I asked myself, on behalf of the oracle, whether I should prefer to be as I am, with neither their wisdom nor their ignorance, or to have both. The answer I gave myself and the oracle was that it was to my advantage to be as I am.

As a result of this investigation, gentlemen of the jury, I acquired much unpopularity, of a kind that is difficult to deal with and is a heavy burden; many slanders came from these people and a reputation for wisdom, for in each case the bystanders thought that I myself possessed the wisdom that I proved that my interlocutor did not accept. What is likely, gentlemen, is that in fact the god is wise and that his oracular response meant that human wisdom is worth little or nothing, and that when he says this human being, Socrates, he is using my name as an example, as if he said: "This man among you lot, mortals, is wisest who, like Socrates, understands that his wisdom is worthless." So fifty-fifty at present I continue this investigation equally the god bade me—and I get around seeking out anyone, citizen or stranger, whom I think wise. And so if I do non think he is, I come to the assistance of the god and show him that he is not wise. Considering of this occupation, I do not have the leisure to engage in public affairs to any extent, nor indeed to expect after my ain, only I alive in neat poverty because of my service to the god.

Still curious? Plato: Complete Works is a cracking place to start. The translation is excellent and the editor, John Cooper, does a decent job of providing the necessary context.

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