by Algy Moncrieff

Created on: December 14, 2006   Last Updated: June 14, 2009

wisdom, n.,

1. The ability to use one's experience and knowledge to make sensible decisions or judgements.

2. Accumulated knowledge or learning.

- Collins Essential English Dictionary.

This seems to be a fairly reasonable definition of what wisdom could be. The sort of wisdom that old men with long grey beards are supposed to have. However, Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher of some renown, thought this only to be partially true, arguing instead that:

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

It is not entirely clear what Socrates means when he says this. Perhaps he is simply advising his pupils not to get too ahead of themselves, since even he, perhaps the most knowledgeable of all the Greek philosophers, still realised that he knew almost nothing in the grand scheme of things. Most likely it relates to the story of the Oracle, whom Socrates' friend Chaerephon asked if there was anyone wiser than Socrates. The Oracle replied that there was no one.

This struck Socrates as strange, because although he believed that what the Oracle said must be true, he also believed that he was not in the slightest bit wise. Because he had spent a large amount of his time bashing his head against the brick wall that constitutes most of the problems of philosophy, he understood fully just how little of the world he knew about, and therefore did not consider himself to be in the slightest bit wise. Being headstrong and unafraid to challenge those he considered to be in the wrong, Socrates set out to test the Oracle's theory, by going and interviewing some of the men whom Athenians tended to consider wise.

Under a barrage of Socratic argument (which tends to push the defendant into a corner and then force them to make a noose out of their own arguments to hang themselves with, whereupon they get quite angry), Socrates found out that the men he spoke to all thought that they knew a great deal, and all considered themselves to be very wise, when in reality they knew very little and so weren't wise at all. Socrates realised that in this paradox lay the answer he was looking for - only he realised quite how little he knew, and so it was only he who was truly wise.

As much as this epiphany must have pleased him, he unfortunately had left a trail of disgruntled Athenian statesmen in his wake, all of whom he had made to look foolish. He was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens, although a number of other crimes were laid at his feet, and sentenced to death by drinking the famous hemlock juice. His friends were fairly certain that they could help him escape by bribing the guards, but Socrates refused. He said that true philosophers did not fear death, and furthermore to attempt to escape would be a breach of the social contract he had entered into by accepting his place as an Athenian citizen. He must agree to abide by their laws, however foolish, or he would undermine the state.

And so he died with his anguished friends looking on. Nevertheless he managed, perhaps largely as a result of his dramatic death, to be remembered to this day as an obstinate old man who knew nothing at all, and yet who was the wisest man in Athens.

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