Good afternoon Dr. Calano.

This is Jomar Niño

Abasola, and this is my Final exam for Claret Ancient
Philosophy.

Demonstrate how Aristotle’s or Plato’s Philosophical

reflection or understanding is Human Wisdom
According to Socratic understanding of Human
wisdom. Focus on Sacrates’ understanding of human
wisdom.
So I choose Socrates and Plato

In able for us to do this, we may first try to see the

background of this Two Philosophers.
Socrates was by far the most influential philosopher.
However, he did not write any writings of his own, so
we learn about Socrates' life and teachings via his pupil
and friend Plato.
Plato's Apology is definitely one of the most important
publications about Socrates' speech at his trial.
Socrates was accused of impiety and youth corruption.
Socrates often alludes to a single God in Plato's
Apology, and he refused to worship the Greek gods.
Socrates was defending himself and his philosophical
ideas when he was found guilty and sentenced to death.
We come to know of the phrase that “an unexamined
life is not worth living” towards the end of his trial.
Socrates believed that the purpose of life was to grow
spiritually, and philosophically; he argued that it was
important to question and “examine” your values and
beliefs in order to determine if they were the correct
ones. Socrates’ way of examining people was by using
his method of elenchus, in other words, the Socratic
method. +
One of Plato’s most important works is unquestionably
the Apology, which is essentially a record of the speech
Socrates gave at his trial. The trial took place in Athens in
399 BC. Socrates was not only defending himself, but
was also defending his conception of philosophy.
According to Socrates, virtue is fundamental and
philosophy is an examination of ourselves towards
virtue.
Early in Socrates’ defence speech, he explained that his
friend Chaerephon went to the oracle of Delphi and
asked whether there was anyone wiser than Socrates.
The oracle told Chaerephon that no one is wiser than
Socrates. Socrates was baffled by this news as he found
it very hard to believe that he was the wisest man.
Socrates was aware of his own ignorance; he did not
think he was wise.
Thus, he decided to attempt to refute the oracle by
finding someone who was wiser than himself. He spoke
to people with different profession’s, such as
politicians, poets, and craftsmen; however, he found
that they only possessed “human wisdom”. For
example, the artisans were only wise in their art, but
they lacked wisdom in what Socrates referred to as
“higher things” or “human excellence.” Socrates found
that:
“I am wiser than this man, for neither of us
appears to know anything great and good; but
he fancies he knows something although he
knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know
anything, so I do not fancy I do.”
We see here how Socrates understand wisdom. It shows
that because they all claimed they were wise this made
them not so wise, whereas Socrates never claimed to be
wise as he was conscious of his own ignorance about
higher matters; thus he had a type of wisdom. Socrates
therefore saw it as his responsibility to examine himself
and others: that is to live the life of a philosopher.
I come to this quote from him. He said “The only
true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”
Socrates provides us with a brilliant method,
called the Socratic method, or the method of
“examination.” The Socratic method was not
necessarily used to determine what is not true, but
rather to determine what cannot be true.
An example of this is in Plato’s Phaedo where Socrates asks
Simmias “Do we allow that there is such a thing as equality?”
Each time an answer is given Socrates finds an inconsistency
with Simmias’ answer. This continues until Simmias runs out
of definitions of equality, and so the discussion ends. Thus,
“Socrates here not only reminds Simmias of his ignorance but
makes him painfully aware of his ignorance.” This is
important because Socrates wanted people to “examine”
their lives and become aware of their own ignorance rather
than thinking that they know things when actually they know
nothing.
In conclusion, Socrates believed that philosophy was an
improvement of the soul as it reveals our ignorance;
therefore it is important to live an “examined life.” He
believed that you will most likely lead a miserable life if
you do not question your beliefs and ideas. Socrates
always claimed that he did not know anything; this
resonates the essence of what Socrates is talking about.
Wisdom is a sort of recognition of your own ignorance,
thus Socrates knows that he is not wise; therefore he
has a type of wisdom.
Socrates concludes that the life worth living is an
examined life. “Socrates himself said that he was a
horsefly put by the gods ‘on the flanks’ of a ‘sluggish’
Athens in an attempt to ‘wake it up’”. In other words
Socrates believed it was his duty to make people aware of
their ignorance. He believed that if you do not examine
your ideas and beliefs and test them to determine whether
or not they are contradictory, and you live your entire life
based upon those ideas; you will, according to Socrates,
have lived a deceitful life; a life of false belief. This is the
great danger that he wanted to tackle.
For Socrates, knowledge is the most valuable thing in
life, however, he believed that it is better to seek
knowledge and be conscious of your own ignorance
than to claim knowledge that you really do not have.
What about Plato Himself?

In the Republic Plato's injunction is in effect: "Become

wise yourself, or if you are incapable of it, let yourself
be guided by one who is truly wise." So if we notice,
this understanding of Plato is somehow similar to what
Socrates was pointing when he said that we know
nothing. We are ignorant. We somehow need teachers
or other source of knowledge or wisdom so it may add
to our understanding of ourselves and of the world.
The idea that wisdom might look like folly, at least from some
points of view, is one that goes back to Plato's famous
allegory of the cave in the Republic. In this allegory, Socrates
asks us to imagine the mass of humankind like prisoners
chained up in a cave, a fire blazing behind them. Between the
prisoners and the fire pass a shadowy bunch of puppeteers.
These puppeteers carry models of things like ducks and cows
and tables and jumbo jets. The prisoners see the flickering
shadows of the puppets on the wall, and they think, 'Look, a
duck! A cow! A table! A chair! A jumbo jet!' And they take
these flickering shadows for the whole of reality.
But then one day, one of the prisoners is released and
forced out of the cave into the sunlight. There they see
reality in all its unadorned richness. They see real
ducks and cows. They see tables and chairs. Jumbo jets
pass overhead. Reality is so much more than they had
imagined. Before they only saw shadows of models of
real things. Now they see the things themselves.
So, we have learned last time in our Ethics subject that the
prisoner was “forced” out of the cave. Someone forced that
prisoner to get out. So, we see here that we need to force
ourselves and our minds in able for us to improve or develop
our wisdom. This is I think the one that connects Plato and
Socrates because both of them think that we are naturally
ignorant and we have to do our part to increase our
understanding of the world.

So I think that’s all I can say about this topic. Thank you
very much.