How can Socrates?

Question

How can a man like Socrates who publicly states that all he knows is that he knows nothing be considered a philosopher and a teacher?

Answer 1

Socrates is supposed to have claimed that the only thing that he knew was that he knew nothing. This was the one thing that made him wiser than everyone else who thought that they did know what they were talking about when they actually didn't.

Socrates' whole point was to get people to think about subjects like justice or truth using reason. Socrates thought that we could only arrive at truth through reasoned analysis, not through unreasoned opinions or appeals to authority or tradition or things like that. Often Socrates motive was to expose the ignorance of famous, powerful, or supposedly knowledgeable people who had all kinds of opinions that weren't backed up by solid reasoning.

Answer 2

Socrates is considered a philosopher and a professor because he believed in the political virtue. Concretely his phrase 'en ida oti ouden ida'(εν οιδα οτι ουδεν οιδα) declares precisely this. That explains his conviction that does not know nothing. For this reason, is considered one of the biggest philosophers because while the other thought that they knew everything he said that he know nothing. For that, i mean the fact that he knew about his ignorance made him see the light of isterofimia(to be known not only when you are alive but when you pass away too).

Answer 3

Haven't you ever seen "The Huslter" or "The Color of Money"?

Socrates was histories first philosophy-hustler. Do you think he'd have got much out of his "mark" by steaming in claiming he was the wisest man alive? No, gently does it. Let the mark think HE is educating YOU, ask him questions ("play the man not the cards" - Amarillo Slim Preston) get him to expose his reasoning, slip in a few well chosen dialectics and BAM! leave him high on inconsistent ground gasping for sylogisms.

Answer 4

He is teaching people that they don't really know anything. He is a philosophizing about the nature of knowledge. Ergo, he is both a teacher and a philosopher.

Answer 5

The key is the word "know." Simply stated: when you know something, it leaves no room to learn or grow. Example: the earth was round, and since everybody knew that, nobody did anything to see/learn otherwise.