June 27, 2017

GREEK PHILOSOPHER: SOCRATES

Among the ancient Greek philosophers that I’ve researched, I choose Socrates as the
most notable ones because as I’ve read his biography, his quote caught my attention which he
says, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Based on my own understanding
from it, when a person claims to have knowledge, but actually he knows nothing, is not a wise or
a smart person. It doesn’t matter how much you know everything or to act ignorant towards a
particular situation because as for me, this world around us is still full of mystery. It still makes
us wonder how does that thing worked or created. However, no matter how intelligent a person
is, there is still an infinite amount of stuff that we don't know yet so through this quote, it opens
our minds to discover the unknown hidden in this world. Another thing that made me admired
Socrates is that despite of having no written records behind, he was still able to give his greatest
contribution in philosophy which is called the “Socratic Method” wherein the discussion,
argument, and dialogue are used to perceive the truth. The method is usually regarded as a set of
questions that are tests of logic. Because of his way, he was able to encouraged people to think
questions critically and try to discern the truth, not being blinded to cover it. Although,
unfortunately, he was sentenced to death because they said he was a “corrupter of youth”, yet
Socrates didn’t stop and continued his teachings until he was poisoned and died. I can somewhat
relate from his story a little bit. The fact that we should be brave enough and tell what we know
is the truth, even though people might criticize us but if we learn to voice out our thoughts, we
can change some things for the better. Just like what Socrates said learn to think critically, don’t
just spit out things recklessly but try to filter the words that you are trying to say to someone
truthfully. In additional, his teachings forces the students to think in a disciplined, intellectually
responsible manner, while yet continually aiding them by posing facilitating questions in order to
deal with their thoughts fairly and carefully.