Sarah Pritchard

September 19, 2010

Philosophy 12
“Apology” Response Paper

“In my investigation in the service of the god I found that those who had the highest reputation
were nearly the most deficient, while those who were thought to be inferior were more
knowledgeable.”
Socrates, Plato’s “Apology”

With this statement, Socrates is saying that he observed a discrepancy between the

popular belief and the reality of people’s knowledge. The privileged, upperclass people were

thought to be the wisest, while the underprivileged lowerclass individuals were thought to be

ignorant and completely unintelligent. However, Socrates observed in his research that it was

actually the “ignorant” who were wise, and the “wise” who were ignorant. This statement is not

taken well because it directly challenges the authority of those who considered themselves to be

the wise and powerful.

This is an important observation because it calls for Socrates’ audience to reexamine

what wisdom is. Wisdom does not necessarily mean literal academic knowledge, but perhaps

pertains more to how one lives one’s life. This is surely what Socrates is referring to, but it is not

an idea that has been thought about often among his listeners. Furthermore, according to this

definition of wisdom and Socrates’ observations, those in authority in Athens do not have

knowledge on the proper way to live one’s life, while the lowerclass citizens do. This

assumption calls into question then what the proper way to live one’s life actually is.

If this statement does, indeed, mean that the powers of Athens are not the wise and the

lowerclass population is, in fact, wise, than that means that those in power really do not have the

authority that comes with being the “wisest.” In fact, it actually means that those in authority are

actually ignorant about how to live their lives in the proper way, which strips them of the
authority to give others guidelines on leading a good life. It presents them rather as hypocrits

who claim to know the way to live a good life, when in reality, they do not have this knowledge.

This statement causes a problem for the people of Athens because it makes it unclear who

has the authority and the knowledge within the population and who does not. It had always been

thought that the upperclass men with the political authority had the most knowledge and wisdom

when it came to living a good life. However, Socrates presents the alternate idea that while these

men have garnished political power, they have no real knowledge on how to live a good life and

those who had been thought to be uneducated and ignorant were actually the ones with wisdom.

His statement poses two questions to the people of Athens: What does wisdom really mean? and

What is the best way to live one’s life?

Socrates’ statement is made to challenge the popular belief of what wisdom and

knowledge mean to the people of Athens. Its importance lies in posing the question to define

what wisdom actually is, and who holds this wisdom within Athens. It implies that the Athenian

powers do not actually have the knowledge that they were thought to have and that that

knowledge can be gained from more unexpected sources.