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From: dw94ad@badger.ac.BrockU.CA (DAVID WILKINSON)
Subject: Re: Wisdom...
Message-ID: <1994Dec3.060335.11680@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA>
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Date: Sat, 3 Dec 1994 06:03:35 GMT
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mark gerald ford wrote:
: >He who knows not and knows that he knows not is lost. Guide him.

: I believe this is close to Socrates' definition of the wise man, not the
: lost man. Would anyone agree with the Socraitic notion that wisdom is 
: knowing that you'll never know completely, but always striving to know 
: completely (with the assumption that the knowledge you possess now amounts 
: to 'nothing')? Isn't this what Socrates' preached and lived?     

	Socrates never came up with any definitions.  His thoughts on 
wisdom were quite interesting though.  He said that he knows nothing.  
Interesting.  He also spoke of superhuman wisdom which is the sum of all 
knowledge there is to obtain.  But this wisdom was not attainable by man.
I think the term 'nothing' was used in the sense that what Socrates 
accually knew, was nothing compared to this superhuman knowledge.  To 
Socrates a wise man was one who realized this.  He posed questions to 
people to prove a prophet wrong when the oracle said that Socrates was 
the wisest man.  If he knew nothing this would be wrong.  He realized 
that the oracle meant that one who realizes that man cannot attain all 
possible knowledge and the knoweldge that he can obtain is insignificant 
as compared to everything there is to know.  If this is true, we know 
nothing.

--
          _\|/_                   | David Wilkinson            |
          (o o)                   | dw94ad@badger.ac.brocku.ca |
-------oOO-(_)-OOo-------         | Wilk, does a body good!    |

The trouble with trouble is that it usually starts out as fun!  
