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Here, Socrates aims at the change of Meno's opinion, who was a firm believer in his own opinion and whose claim to knowledge Socrates had disproved. It is essentially the question that begins "post-Socratic" Western philosophy. Socrates begins all wisdom with wondering, thus one must begin with admitting one's ignorance.
Wisdom became a major theme in Greek philosophy. Socrates equated wisdom with knowing one's own ignorance, while Plato argued that wisdom was the highest form of knowledge. [10] Aristotle distinguished between practical wisdom (phronesis) and theoretical wisdom (sophia), defining wisdom as the ability to deliberate well about the good life. [11]
Socrates argued that virtue is knowledge, which suggests that there is really only one virtue. [32] The Stoics identified four cardinal virtues : wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance. Wisdom is subdivided into good sense, good calculation, quick-wittedness, discretion, and resourcefulness.
Socrates believed that philosophy – the love of wisdom – was the most important pursuit above all else. For some, he exemplifies more than anyone else in history the pursuit of wisdom through questioning and logical argument, by examining and by thinking.
Socrates's theory of virtue states that all virtues are essentially one, since they are a form of knowledge. [151] For Socrates, the reason a person is not good is because they lack knowledge. Since knowledge is united, virtues are united as well. Another famous dictum—"no one errs willingly"—also derives from this theory. [152]
In the sixth book of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, he distinguished the concepts of sophia (wisdom) and phronesis, and described the relationship between them and other intellectual virtues. [4]: VI He writes that Sophia is a combination of nous , the ability to discern reality, and epistēmē , things that "could not be otherwise". [ 7 ]
Socrates (as depicted by Plato) generally applied his method of examination to concepts such as the virtues of piety, wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice. Such an examination challenged the implicit moral beliefs of the interlocutors, bringing out inadequacies and inconsistencies in their beliefs, and usually resulting in aporia .
While Socrates seems to have won the argument, he points to the fact that if all virtue is knowledge, it can in fact be taught. He draws the conclusion that to an observer he and Protagoras would seem crazy, having argued at great lengths only to mutually exchange positions, with Socrates now believing that virtue can be taught and Protagoras ...