43 pages • 1 hour read
PlatoA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Early in his defense, Socrates attributes his poor reputation to “a certain kind of wisdom” (25). By that, he means the wisdom to acknowledge his own ignorance—and, importantly, the ignorance of others. This conclusion stems from Socrates’s efforts to determine why the oracle at Delphi told Chaerephon there was no one wiser than Socrates. In testing this theory—which, if Socrates’s piety is to be believed, must be true in his mind—he engages all the most prominent men in Athens in conversation, only to find that they are not wise at all. This in itself is not enough to prove that Socrates is wiser; Socrates continues to admit his lack of wisdom. Yet while neither man knows anything of value, Socrates’s acknowledgement of his own ignorance places him above those prominent Athenians who believe themselves to be paragons of wisdom. As Socrates explains, “[S]o I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know” (26). This ignorance is also shared by poets and artisans, Socrates claims. The poets, he says, “do not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say” (27).
By Plato
Allegory Of The Cave
Allegory Of The Cave
Plato
Crito
Crito
Plato
Euthyphro
Euthyphro
Plato
Gorgias
Gorgias
Plato
Ion
Ion
Plato
Meno
Meno
Plato
Phaedo
Phaedo
Plato
Phaedrus
Phaedrus
Plato
Protagoras
Protagoras
Plato
Symposium
Symposium
Plato
Theaetetus
Theaetetus
Plato
The Last Days of Socrates
The Last Days of Socrates
Plato
The Republic
The Republic
Plato