Q16 ~ What three groups of people does Socrates interrogate during his quest to understand the meaning of the oracle at Delphi? Which group has the most wisdom? In what way does Socrates think he is wiser than anyone? (You might wish to include a discussion of Socratic irony in your answer.)

16.  What three groups of people does Socrates interrogate during his quest to understand the meaning of the oracle at Delphi? Which group has the most wisdom? In what way does Socrates think he is wiser than anyone?   (You might wish to include a discussion of Socratic irony in your answer.)

RW: I primarily used the 2010 answer, with tweaks from other years and of my own.  I’m least clear about what they’re getting at with the parenthetical part of the question.

I)     Setting the scene

A)   Chaerephon asks the oracle if anyone is wiser than Socrates.  The oracle says: No.

B)    Socrates’ response

1)    Socrates is amazed, for he isn’t wise, yet also knows the oracle does not lie.

2)    This motivates Socrates to test the oracle by seeking to find someone wiser than himself.  Were he to succeed, the oracle would be refuted.

(a)   Tests three groups: Politicians, Poets, Craftsmen.

(b)   None is found to be wise.

II)   The Interrogation

A)   POLITICIANS

1)    Appeared wise to many, especially to the politician himself

2)    Through examination, Socrates shows the politician isn’t wise

(a)   Neither Socrates nor the politician knows anything

(b)   But Socrates knows he doesn’t, while the politician thinks he does

(c)   Socrates’ (small) wisdom = “I do not think I know what I do not know”

B)    POETS

1)    They say beautiful things (recall the Meno, the recollection/slave-boy part is preceded by Socrates commenting that the poets say something beautiful and true)

2)    When asked about their work, the poets are shown to lack wisdom

(a)   No wisdom about their poetry

(i)    The crowd could explain the poems more effectively

(ii)  The poets appear to compose through inborn talent and inspiration (like seers/prophets), not by knowledge

(b)   No wisdom outside their poetry

(i)    Because of their poetry, the poets think themselves wise in other respects

(ii)  Once again, Socrates at least knows he doesn’t know

C)    CRAFTSMEN

1)    They actually have some wisdom.

(a)   They know things with respect to their craft.

(b)   In this, they are wiser than Socrates

2)    But are not ultimately wise

(a)   Because of their craft-wisdom, they mistakenly thought they were wise outside their craft (perhaps about more important things)

(b)   This lack of wisdom overshadowed their modicum of wisdom

(i)    Socrates asks himself (on behalf of the oracle) whether he’d rather have both the craftsmen’s wisdom and their error, or stay as he is

(ii)  He says he’d rather stay as he is

D)   Summary comments

1)    The trend

(a)   Those thought wisest are in fact least wise, while those thought inferior have the most wisdom.

(b)   Yet none is as wise as Socrates, for they all think they know what they don’t

2)    The reaction

(a)   All those cross-examined get angry with Socrates, not themselves

(b)   They can’t say exactly what Socrates did or taught them

(c)   They repeat stock charges against philosophers

3)    The result

(a)   The oracle meant that Socrates’ wisdom is best because Socrates has a correct estimation of the worth of human wisdom (namely, he “understands that his wisdom is worthless”)

(b)   The irony of the result: Socrates thinks himself ignorant, and finds out he is wisest (in a sense).

(c)   Such a view of wisdom leads to a distinctive teaching technique and attitude for Socrates: Socratic irony.

III) Socratic Irony

A)   A teaching technique

1)    Socrates (deceptively?) deflates his own knowledge through humility/diffidence, drawing others into conversation

2)    Then he deflates their knowledge, and leads them to aporia

3)    Used in the process of recollection/philosophical ascent, making people inquire further

4)    This makes people mad (cf. Thrasymachus in Republic)

5)    To be virtuous is to know.  One can’t have a virtue without understanding virtue or the definition of the particular virtue

B)    An attitude (i.e., a virtue, a stance toward life)

1)    Example: Meno likens Socrates to a torpedo fish, but Socrates retorts that if he makes others numb it is because he is numb himself

2)    Directed to the process of dialectic/self-examination

(a)   This is not skepticism; Socrates uses irony in order to know

(b)   Socratic irony is not to be diffident toward everything, but to the pretense to knowledge.