Lack Of Knowledge In Plato's The Apology Of Socrates

In Plato’s The Apology of Socrates, the oracle at Delphi said that Socrates is the wisest. Socrates tried his hardest to fully understand what the oracle meant. He made it his mission to test the oracle’s statement. He went to people who have a reputation for wisdom and verified their knowledge through questioning. He discovered a great deal of ignorance and fabricated claims of knowledge. Nobody had a real genuine understanding, they just claimed they did. During his quest to find out what the oracle meant, Socrates came up with only one explanation. He is the wisest, but not because he possesses special knowledge not had by others. But because he recognizes his lack of knowledge. Others choose to say that they know everything when in fact, they do not. Socrates is fully aware that he knows nothing. Even though Socrates knows that he isn’t full of knowledge, he obtains knowledge by demonstrating a method of testing claims to knowledge.
The way that I interpreted Socrates’ statement, “the unexamined life is not worth living” was that each person lives their life in a unique way. In order to live life to the fullest, you need to investigate it and in the process, you will be investigating yourself. Finding out more things about yourself that you didn’t know of. To Socrates, an unexamined life wasn’t …show more content…
But, it wasn’t because he had a superior knowledge that nobody else possessed, it was because he was fully aware of his lack of knowledge. Socrates did not fear death because he knew that he didn’t know what death was. He wasn’t like the rest who feared death because they claimed they knew what it was. He had nothing to fear because there was no proof that death was something to be feared. The Apology of Socrates ends with Socrates saying that he is going to die while the rest are going to live. But, neither side knows which one is better. Socrates reinstates his beliefs that you cannot fear the