What do you thing on this statement made by SOKRATES at the end of his life...
2006-10-28 11:32:20 · 20 answers · asked by jgnomikos 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I love it. Mostly it stops your ego cold in its tracks. Once you become so sure of your 'rightness' that is the day your ego is in control and you forget who you really are.
2006-10-28 14:53:07 · answer #1 · answered by Candi L 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
His reference,,,in my opinion, was that in what was a long life, what he THOUGHT he knew, was not at all what he had finally LEARNED, to be what he thought.
It really isn't so difficult to understand when you consider that FACTS, and the "exposure" of them,,,evolve, in much the same way as a Tadpole/Frog.
In my own lifetime,,,which hopefully will go on a few more years,,, what "was",,,when I was born, and what I was taught, or learned at the time, even by osmosis,,, in many cases has been disproven, or shown to be inacurate.
An example of ones knowledge, and/or enlightenment might be the Mark Twain quote regarding how, as a youth, he thought his father to be as dumb as a rock. AS Mark (Samuel) matured, he was amazed at how much his father had learned by the time Mark had reached his late teens or early 20's.
Steven Wolf
2006-10-28 11:44:35 · answer #2 · answered by DIY Doc 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In a certain way of looking at things, he was absolutely correct. We do not and can not ever KNOW the answers to questions that seem to have no answer. However, on another level, there are things that you DO KNOW! For example, you know when you need to go to the bathroom. You know that you love your new born baby when you first look at him/her. You know that you need sleep. You know when you need to eat. And like great thinkers of the past, you know that there are many things that you do not know and will never know.
2006-10-28 11:42:08 · answer #3 · answered by Bluebeard 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I doubt he ment that people would take him literally on that count. Unless he was figuring in the possibility that he himself was not the one that was doing the knowing at all.. Certainly we know that our actions affect the world, I am affecting what you are reading right now and given that we affect what manifests on so many levels, that would make us more accurately , I think, co creators of what manifests here , with imput and knowing that is happening at many levels........some of which we are not aware of , ( events being planned by our innerselves in our dreams possibly) , possibly he was alluding to things that he knew were going on like that that he could feel inklings of but couldn't truely "know"
2006-10-28 12:19:01 · answer #4 · answered by John C 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When you compare any finite sense of knowledge to an infinite it is immediately reduced to near zero. It is a statement of humility to say one knows near nothing, but also a statement of knowledge to recognize that within oneself.
2006-10-28 11:38:00 · answer #5 · answered by daniel a 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
He sure knows deeply to be able to say that in the final analysis, he knows nothing. Thumbs up for a very humble guy.
2006-10-28 11:36:10 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, I don't know about Socrates, but for myself,
"I have learned many many things in my life, but what I know for sure is that there is a LOT more to know."
2006-10-28 16:18:46 · answer #7 · answered by concernedjean 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I believe he was trying to place the point across that there is a lot to learn about ourselves and the universe we live in... and indeed it seems the more we learn, the more new questions come up.
2006-10-28 11:52:46 · answer #8 · answered by Payattention 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He finally understood that the only thing he could be sure about was he knew same as ever one today.
2006-10-28 13:02:30 · answer #9 · answered by Zeela Ravana 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think he meant that he spent his youth believing he knew everything and nearing the end of his life learned that it is human to error.
2006-10-28 11:37:23 · answer #10 · answered by Share 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋