Order out of Chaos 21

In the Apology Socrates speaks in his defence to his denouncer, Meletus …… “Athenians have been affected by my accusers….yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth….I will endeavor to explain to you the reason why I am called wise and have such and evil reputation….Chaerephon, (who is well known to you) went to Delphi and boldly asked the oracle if there was anyone wiser than I was, and the Pythian prophetess answered, that there was no man wiser….I have no wisdom small or great…I reflected that if I could find a man wiser than myself ….I might go to the god with a refutation…I went to one who had a reputation of wisdom….he was a politician…:When I began to talk with him, I could not help but think that he was not really wise, although he was thought wise by many, and still wiser by himself….” Socrates tried to explain to him that he wasn’t really wise and of course the politician hated him for that. Socrates comes out with the classic saying “ I am better off than he is — for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think that I know.”