Socratic Wisdom Essay

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The study of philosophy has been around for more years than I could ever think of. Philosophy is the study of the existence of things and why different events fold out the way that they do. When we separate the word philosophy we get “phil-”, meaning love, and “-sophy”, meaning wisdom. The word philosophy simply means the “love of wisdom”. Some of the great philosophers are Plato, Alexander the Great, Aristotle and of course Socrates. Socrates can probably be credited with founding western philosophy. Western philosophy is the study of western culture and things of the sort. Socrates was a man despised by many but also admired by others. Socrates was always willing to talk to people throughout the city. Instead of him teaching these …show more content…

Throughout the Apology and book seven of The Republic of Plato Socrates strongly believes in Socratic wisdom. Socrates believes that being wise is not portraying to know everything when you don’t, but to accept the fact that you may not know everything and learn the truth so that you may truly become wise.
Socrates views of wisdom are first seen in The Apology during his trial. Socrates is being prosecuted by a few men of Athens: Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon. These three accusers say that Socrates has been corrupting the youth with his false teachings, publicly ridiculing the “wise” people of the city, gaining monetary profits from teaching people the things he knows, making the weaker argument the stronger one and also having the wrong belief of the gods. Is Socrates really doing any wrong or is he just speaking the truth to the people of Athens? Socrates is deemed an “accomplished speaker” and the accusers of Socrates find this to be very dangerous. Socrates feels otherwise and says “I show myself not to be an accomplished speaker…unless indeed they call an accomplished speaker the man who speaks the truth” (Plato’s Apology. 17b). You could infer that Socrates believes …show more content…

Socrates had come across many people who thought that they may have been the wisest. To one of the public men, whom many thought was wise, Socrates simply showed him that he was not as wise as he thought he was. Socrates then thought to himself “I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know” (Plato’s Apology. 21d). Here Socrates shows that simply a sense of humility and admittance can make one seem wiser than others. Socrates already knows he is wise because the oracle at Delphi prophesizes to Chaerephon in The Apology “that no one was wiser.” Throughout The Apology Socrates felt that he needed to prove that the oracle was “irrefutable”. Socrates once again proved that he was wiser than

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