Socrates – the Philosopher who said he knows that he knows nothing
[Relevant for Public Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude]
Socrates – the Philosopher who said he knows that he knows nothing
Whole of Western Philosophy is described as either before Socrates or after Socrates. Such is the effect of this single philosopher. But Socrates became a teacher because he could not bear the propaganda commuted under the garb of philosophy by the Sophist. To counter this moral decay Socrates decided to engage with fellow citizen in a sort of question-answer session involving deductive-dialectical process i.e. analyzing the whole problem from its smallest denominator and when found with an answer synthesizing it all to make a maxim.
Before any conversation Socrates started with empty slate and just countered the seeker with another question till the analysis got to the basic tenet of that proposition.
Socrates himself said “The only thing I know is that I do not know”.
He regarded himself as Maieutic (midwife) for the seeker who he considered is already pregnant with wisdom and his task is just to act as nurse to smoothen the birth process of his wisdom.
Socrates was a peripatetic (a roaming teacher) and kept on engaging anyone into conversation starting with the question of the seeker. Knowledge, he said, is formed in the mind by the capacity of intellect which elaborates the finding of the senses.
Some of Socrates famous saying:
- The unexamined life is not worth living.
- By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.
- To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.
- The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.
- Virtue is knowledge.
After Socrates; Greek Philosophy which we call more generically as Ancient Western Philosophy became less metaphysical and more logical with sound backing of universal ethical principles. Both Plato and Aristotle were disciples of Socrates.
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