What does the story about Unoka going to see the Oracle further illustrate about his character?
Socrates on Wisdom
Socrates was by far ane of the virtually important philosophers. Still, he wrote no works of his ain; therefore we come to know about Socrates' life and teachings through his student and friend Plato (427 BCE — 347 BCE). The Apology, which was written by Plato, is undeniably i of the most important writings on Socrates' speech that he gave at his trial. Socrates was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth. In Plato'south Apology, Socrates repeatedly refers to a single God, and he refused to honour the Greek gods. He was defending himself and his conception of philosophy, however, Socrates was constitute guilty and he was sentenced to death.
Nosotros come up to know of the phrase that "an unexamined life is not worth living" towards the end of his trial. Socrates believed that the purpose of life was to grow spiritually, and philosophically; he argued that is was important to question and "examine" your values and beliefs in order to make up one's mind if they were the correct ones. Socrates' way of examining people was by using his method of elenchus, in other words, the Socratic method. He believed that this method made people more enlightened of their ignorance and therefore, leads to humility and modesty.
1 of Plato'due south nigh important works is unquestionably the Apology, which is essentially a record of the speech Socrates gave at his trial. The trial took place in Athens in 399 BC. Socrates was non only defending himself, but was too defending his formulation of philosophy. According to Socrates, virtue is cardinal and philosophy is an examination of ourselves towards virtue. He was accused of ii things, which were corrupting the youth of Athens, and introducing a new God.
Early on in Socrates' defence speech, he explained that his friend Chaerephon went to the oracle of Delphi and asked whether in that location was anyone wiser than Socrates. The oracle told Chaerephon that no one is wiser than Socrates. Socrates was baffled by this news every bit he institute information technology very hard to believe that he was the wisest man. Socrates was aware of his own ignorance; he did not recollect he was wise. Thus, he decided to attempt to refute the oracle by finding someone who was wiser than himself. He spoke to people with dissimilar profession's, such equally politicians, poets, and craftsmen; yet, he plant that they just possessed "homo wisdom". For example, the artisans were only wise in their art, but they lacked wisdom in what Socrates referred to equally "higher things" or "human excellence." Socrates institute that:
"I am wiser than this human being, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; just he fancies he knows something although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, and so I practice non fancy I do."
This therefore shows that because they all claimed they were wise this made them not so wise, whereas Socrates never claimed to be wise equally he was conscious of his own ignorance about higher matters; thus he had a type of wisdom. Socrates therefore saw it as his responsibility to examine himself and others: that is to live the life of a philosopher.
Socrates provides us with a bright method, called the Socratic method, or the method of elenchus i.e. "examination." The Socratic method was not necessarily used to determine what is not true, but rather to make up one's mind what cannot be true. Thus, this method was used throughout the Socratic dialogues. For Socrates, this method of determining what is and is not true occurs always in the context of soapbox and dialogue with others. The Socratic method e'er begins with Socrates asking his interlocutor "what is… X?" For instance what is piety, or what is justice? This question is fundamentally after the essence of something; what is essential near these moral qualities such as courage. Socrates e'er proclaims ignorance; he always says he does not know anything. The interlocutor then offers an answer, however, the answer given is not what Socrates is looking for, every bit Socrates wants to know the essence of X. The interlocutor and so provides a definition, however, Socrates discovers a contradiction with the answer given and shows that the definition cannot be right. This process carries on and Socrates continues to discover inconsistencies past showing that the definitions cannot be true.
An example of this is in Plato'due south Phaedo where Socrates asks Simmias "Practice we allow that there is such a thing equally equality?" Each time an reply is given Socrates finds an inconsistency with Simmias' answer. This continues until Simmias runs out of definitions of equality, and so the word ends. Thus, "Socrates here not only reminds Simmias of his ignorance but makes him painfully aware of his ignorance." This is important because Socrates wanted people to "examine" their lives and become aware of their own ignorance rather than thinking that they know things when really they know zero.
Although the Socratic method does not uncover what Socrates is actually looking for, it instead results in the interlocutors and Socrates himself being left in a land of aporia, in other words, a state of perplexity. Since the Socratic method oft leaves people in a land of aporia (perplexity) it could be argued that at that place is no usefulness to be gained from information technology. Still, Socrates talks about the do good of perplexity and claims that it brings people closer to the truth:
"Sometimes ignorance is better than knowledge; he argues that the only truly valuable cognition is the cognition of the good, an authoritative cognition that will correctly propose u.s.a. when to use other appurtenances and skills in our possession."
Therefore, co-ordinate to Socrates, the elenchus method is essential as it is a way of testing your lack of noesis past examining your ideas and beliefs. So even though it does lead to perplexity, it makes y'all more conscious of your own ignorance and consequently it makes you a better person.
In determination, Socrates believed that philosophy was an improvement of the soul as it reveals our ignorance; therefore it is important to alive an "examined life." He believed that you lot will nigh likely lead a miserable life if you do not question your beliefs and ideas. Socrates always claimed that he did not know anything; this resonates the essence of what Socrates is about. Wisdom is a sort of recognition of your own ignorance, thus Socrates knows that he is non wise; therefore he has a type of wisdom. At the cease of his trial Socrates argued:
"If I say that it is the greatest expert for a man to discuss virtue every day and those other things most which you hear me conversing and testing myself and others, for the unexamined life is non worth living for men, yous volition believe me even less."
Socrates concludes that the life worth living is an examined life. "Socrates himself said that he was a horsefly put by the gods 'on the flanks' of a 'sluggish' Athens in an attempt to 'wake it up'". In other words Socrates believed it was his duty to make people enlightened of their ignorance. He believed that if you do non examine your ideas and behavior and test them to determine whether or not they are contradictory, and you live your unabridged life based upon those ideas; you will, according to Socrates, accept lived a mendacious life; a life of false belief. This is the great danger that he wanted to tackle.
For Socrates, noesis is the most valuable thing in life, however, he believed that it is better to seek knowledge and exist conscious of your own ignorance than to claim knowledge that you really practice non have.
Follow Thoughts and Ideas on Facebook: facebook.com/thoughtsandideas1
Source: https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/the-only-true-wisdom-is-in-knowing-you-know-nothing-5789c8994cc6
0 Response to "What does the story about Unoka going to see the Oracle further illustrate about his character?"
Post a Comment