Socrate

1. According to Socrates Apology, what is wisdom?

According to Socrates Apology wisdom is not some knowledge or information. True wisdom is knowing how to live. Socrates thought that true wisdom is eternal and it differs from what other people considered wisdom, he believed that it could be achieved only by a person himself using his or hers mind, as true wisdom comes from the inside.

He thought that his wisdom was in understanding of a fact that he didn't know anything while others considered wise by other people and themselves were actually ignorant.

2. What does Socrates see as his purpose in life? How does he see the role of the philosopher in relation to other people? The state?

"I cannot give birth to wisdom myself and the accusation that many make against me, that while I question others, I myself bring nothing wise to light due to my lack of wisdom, is accurate. The reason for this is as follows: God forces me to serve as a midwife and prevents me from giving birth." Socrates says his purpose in showing people the beginning of a path to truth and virtue. He was doing that by playing ignorant and making people to use their common sense. Socrates compared himself to midwife, as he contributed to the development of wisdom ("true insight") that originally is inside of people, but didn't create wisdom by himself. He only tried to help others to find in themselves a "divine voice" that he thought he found in himself.

Bertrand Russell makes this statement regarding the purpose of philosophy: "The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty" (In Pojman, 20). Outline briefly how he develops his argument, and write a short paragraph on how that relates to your expectations of a philosophy course.

People tend to see the world just as it seems to them, not questioning themselves and thinking much. The world seems obvious to them, living becomes like a habit, when you do something without thinking much about the bigger picture. People rarely question themselves about things they are really uncertain about as they create an illusion of "definite, finite and obvious" world. Then the philosophy comes, as it purpose it to dive deeply into the uncertainty and, by using common sense and reasoning, find true solutions.

I