Apply The Socratic Paradox to Your Writing to Make It Better

“…although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is — for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know.” ― Socrates (v. Plato in Apology)

Ok, so Socrates may or may not have said this quote.

It is hard to know exactly what Socrates shared, as most of what we have are transcriptions from the lessons and talks he gave to eager listeners in the agora (open-air market) of Athens. One of his most faithful pupils, Plato, recorded much of what he could — but even then, we are getting an interpretation of Socrates’ thoughts through the filter of Plato’s bias.

The Socratic Paradox (a philosophical experiment) states it simply: “I know that I know nothing.”

…which leads us to ask why so many young people, and some of the greatest thinkers of his time, were drawn to gather in the hundreds at Socrates’ feet, only to listen to him talk for hours.

Why would these people put so much intellectual faith in a man who had professed to them again and again that he didn’t actually know what the hell he was…