The Ignorance of a Wise Man

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Given Socrates’ statement, toward the beginning of the Apology, that he has gained his reputation by “a sort of wisdom” that he calls “human wisdom” (par. 8), and, given that he does assert in several other places that he is reputed to be a “wise man” whom people think of as knowing things that others do not, one might imagine that this phrase “human wisdom” could therefore be applied to anyone who has achieved a certain level of knowledge. However, taking into account Socrates’ persistent claims about his own lack of knowledge as well as the fact that the only other places in the dialogue that he ever admits to having any wisdom at all are moments in which he is also claiming to be ignorant, Socrates’ apparent admission that he has the kind of wisdom that his reputation suggests would appear to be ironic, and that what he really means by the phrase “human wisdom” is knowing and admitting one’s own ignorance. Towards the beginning of the text, after discussing how the Sophists came to obtain their reputation for being wise and differentiating himself from them, Socrates introduces his argument against his earlier accusers by saying: Men of Athens, this reputation of mine has come of a certain sort of wisdom. What kind of wisdom? It is perhaps such wisdom as could be called human wisdom, for to that extent I am inclined to believe that I may be wise; whereas the persons of whom I was just speaking seem to have a sort of superhuman wisdom, for I don’t know how else to describe it, because I do not have it myself; and whoever says that I do speaks falsely and is attacking my character. (par. 8) This is one of the few instances in which Socrates claims to have any sort of wisdom, but he suggests that the wisdom he really has is a subset of wisdom that he calls “human wisdom”. He defines the wisdom he is being accused of having as “superhuman wisdom”, meaning that the

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