preview

Socrates ' Argument Of Wisdom

Good Essays

Life is full of contradictions, weather it is a situation where one person is happy but their friend is not or by meeting a good politician they are there. Contradictions are littered throughout life but are most usually sought out during lies and courtroom appearances. Contradictions are the way one discredits a defense or the way one undermines an argument, and sometimes they just bring things into question. A specific situation is Socrates’ defense in The Apology. One could assume that the gentlemen of the law were closely examining and judging Socrates’ words and statements, but possibly more than the gentlemen, philosophers examine Socrates’ words through the text. Many thinkers have found great and small contradictions throughout, one concerning Socrates’ statements of wisdom. In The Apology Socrates states that he has no claim to wisdom, yet he appears to have human wisdom. Wisdom is a very abstract term for a great deal of people and for the purpose of this paper it is important to turn to Socrates himself to understand. There a few passages which can be referred to obtain a define idea of what wisdom is to Socrates. In passage 21d Socrates describes a resulting thought about wisdom on his journey to prove that he is not wise, “Well, I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of, but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems

Get Access