Socrates Philosophical Problem

Socrates: Knowledge

Socrates Philosophical Problem

The problem lies in lack of knowledge which often leads men to mistake bad things for good. His aim in his philosophical dialogs were to establish an understanding of knowledge through questioning and debate. He believed in many universal truths and by the exercise of reason one may come to an understanding of what was good. In this time philosophy was lacking moral and political philosophies and there was not a clear understanding of the soul. Socrates tried to solve the problem through knowing ones self as a moral obligation. There are many truths that Socrates believed for example 'Virtue is Knowledge'. Guthrie elaborates, 'Everyone has heard of the 'Socratic paradox', his statement that 'virtue is knowledge'. Perhaps it begins to look a little less paradoxical when we see that what it would naturally mean to a contemporary was more like: 'You can't be efficient unless you take the trouble to learn the job.'' (pg 10).

Socrates often stated that he knew nothing and that this made him wise. Men who thought they were knowledgeable were in fact ignorant. Socrates believed the point of existence should be the pursuit of true knowledge. 'The unexamined life is not worth living' (Socrates).

Socrates did not write down his thoughts and his philosophy. We get it largely through his greatest disciple, Plato. Socrates was the first moral philosopher concerned with the conduct of ones life path. He focused not on the way things are, but the way they could and should be. He emphasized the need for an "examined life", and on the possibility of a universal and absolute morality.

Found in the Apology, '(T1) To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows when one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the...

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