The Oracle at Delphi
20c–23c
Perhaps, then, one of you might interject: "But Socrates, what is it that you do? Where have these slanders against you come from? Surely, if you were busying yourself with nothing out of the ordinary, such a reputation and so much talk would not have arisen — unless you were doing something different from most people. Tell us, then, what 20d it is, so that we do not have to improvise our own judgements about you." This seems to me a fair thing for the speaker to say, and I will try to show you what it is that has brought me this name and this slander. Listen, then. Perhaps some of you will think I am joking; but know well that I will tell you the whole truth. For I, men of Athens, have acquired this name through nothing other than a certain wisdom. What kind of wisdom? The kind that is perhaps human wisdom; for in this, it may be, I really am wise. Whereas the men I mentioned just 20e now may be wise with a wisdom greater than human — or I do not know what to call it; for I certainly do not possess it, and whoever says I do is lying and speaks to slander me. And, men of Athens, do not make an uproar, even if I seem to you to be saying something boastful; for the word I am about to speak is not my own, but I will refer you to a speaker worthy of your trust. As witness to my wisdom — if it is wisdom at all, and of what kind — I will present to you the god at Delphi. You know Chaerephon, I suppose.
He 21a was my companion from youth, and a companion of your people too; he shared in the recent exile and returned with you.1 And you know what kind of man Chaerephon was, how impetuous in whatever he undertook. Well, he once went to Delphi and dared to put this question to the oracle — and, as I say, gentlemen, do not make an uproar — he asked whether anyone was wiser than I. The Pythia2 replied that no one was wiser. His brother here will testify to you about this, since Chaerephon himself has died. 21b
Consider why I am telling you this: I am going to show you where the slander against me came from. When I heard this, I reflected as follows: "What can the god mean, and what is his riddle? For I am conscious of being wise in nothing, great or small. What then can he mean by saying that I am the wisest? He surely does not lie; that is not lawful for him." For a long time I was at a loss as to what he meant; then, very reluctantly, I turned to examine the matter in some such way as this. I went to one of those reputed to be wise, thinking 21c that there, if anywhere, I would refute the oracle and show the god: "This man is wiser than I, but you said I was." So I examined this man — there is no need to give his name; he was one of the politicians, and with him, men of Athens, I had an experience something like this — and in conversing with him I came to think that he seemed wise to many other people, and above all to himself, but was not; and then I tried to show him that he thought himself wise but was not. 21d As a result I became hateful to him and to many of those present. As I went away, I reasoned with myself: "I am wiser than this man. It is likely that neither of us knows anything fine and good; but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas I, just as I do not know, do not think I know either. I seem, then, to be wiser than he in this one small respect: that what I do not know, I do not think I know." After that I went to another, one of those reputed to be wiser than he, and 21e I came to the same conclusion; and there too I became hateful to him and to many others.
After that I went on to one after another, aware, with sorrow and fear, that I was making myself hated; but nevertheless it seemed necessary to give the god's word the highest importance. So I had to go, in examining what the oracle meant, to all those who 22a were reputed to know anything.
And by the dog, men of Athens3 — for I must tell you the truth — this is truly what I experienced: as I investigated in the god's service, those with the greatest reputation seemed to me to be very nearly the most deficient, while others who were thought inferior seemed to be men far better endowed with good sense. I must indeed set out my wanderings for you, like those of a man performing labours,4 so that the oracle might prove irrefutable. After the politicians I went to the poets, the writers of tragedies and 22b dithyrambs and the rest, expecting to catch myself there in the very act of being more ignorant than they. So I took up those of their poems that seemed to me most carefully worked, and I asked them what they meant, so that I might also learn something from them. I am ashamed to tell you the truth, gentlemen; but still, it must be told. Almost everyone present, so to speak, could have spoken better than the poets about the poems they themselves had composed. So I soon recognised this about the poets too: that it is not by wisdom that they compose 22c what they compose, but by a kind of natural gift and inspiration, like seers and those who chant oracles; for these too say many fine things, but know nothing of what they say. The poets seemed to me to be in much the same condition; and at the same time I perceived that because of their poetry they thought themselves the wisest of men in other matters too, in which they were not. So I went away from there too, thinking I had the same advantage over them as over the politicians.
Finally I went to the craftsmen. For I was conscious 22d of knowing practically nothing, and I knew that I would find them knowing many fine things. And in this I was not deceived: they knew things I did not know, and in this they were wiser than I. But, men of Athens, the good craftsmen seemed to me to have the same failing as the poets: because each practised his craft well, he thought himself very wise in the other things too, the most important ones; and this error of theirs overshadowed 22e the wisdom they had. So I asked myself, on behalf of the oracle, whether I would rather be as I am, neither wise with their wisdom nor ignorant with their ignorance, or have both the things they have. And I answered myself and the oracle that it was better for me to be as I am.
From this examination, men of Athens, 23a much hostility has arisen against me, of the harshest and most grievous kind, so that many slanders have come from it, and I have been given this name of being "wise". For on each occasion those present think that I myself am wise in the matters in which I refute someone else. But in fact, gentlemen, it is probably the god who is truly wise, and by this oracle he means that human wisdom is worth little or nothing. And it seems that he speaks of this Socrates and uses 23b my name, making me an example, as if he were to say: "That man among you, mortals, is wisest who, like Socrates, has recognised that in truth he is worth nothing with respect to wisdom." So even now I still go about seeking and searching, in obedience to the god, for anyone, citizen or foreigner, whom I think wise; and when he does not seem so to me, I come to the god's aid and show that he is not wise. Because of this occupation I have had no leisure to do anything worth mentioning in the affairs of the city or in my own; I live 23c in utter poverty because of my service to the god.