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considered his conscience and the truth more important than his life. He was convinced that
whatever he did, he did it with the states interest in mind. He was surrounded by his friends
when he drank the poisoned chalice.
One of his statements was: “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
One of Socrates pupils was Plato. Plato is a very famous and great philosopher. Plato wrote
many dialogues or philosophical discussions in which he used Socrates as a mouthpiece. It
can be that Plato put words in Socrates mouth. That’s why it is hard to say what exactly are
Socrates principles.
Learn wisdom was Socrates ambition, he wanted to learn people to use their brain and think
about life. He saw that not everyone had the same ambition. Not all people wanted to learn
wisdom. He divided these people in three groups:
1. Some people are ignorant and they are not curious at all and therefore they do not
want to learn wisdom
2. Some people think they are wise already and they think they already know everything
and that is why they do not want to learn wisdom
3. Some people unthinkingly say whatever other people say, these people do not think
themselves and that is why they do not want to learn wisdom.
Names we use for the three groups are:
1.
Thoughtless
fool
2.
Smarty
pants
3.
Copy cat
Section 5, Philosophy
Philosophy: the search for knowledge and truth.
You can philosophize about important questions or you wonder at ordinary things. In both
cases you search for knowledge and truth.
If you philosophize you do four things:
1. You think about a subject
2. You investigate possible points of view or possible answers
3. You put into words your point of view or your answer, based on arguments
4. You realise that no one will ever be able to give the only right answer or have the
only right point of view.
You can philosophize on your own or do it with others. If you philosophize with others you
have to remember that it is not a match you can win or lose. Philosophizing properly means
the two (or more) of you learn wisdom.
Chapter 1, About what is important _ BC Broekhin, Margot Maassen