Apology

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).