Socratic Ignorance

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“All I know is that I know nothing.” Why does Socrates say this? Is he sincere?


In The Apology Socrates proclaims to Meletus and the rest of his prosecutors at his trial for impiety that “If I do have any wisdom, great or small, I am quite unaware of it!”. This, at first glance, seems like a bizarre claim for reputedly the wisest man in Athens to be making, until it is shown in the light of some of his other teachings. Socrates was not being modest when he speaks of his wisdom (or lack of), nor was he trying to curry favour with those who were seeking to convict him. Rather, he was being quite honest when he claimed not to know anything at all, for that is what he truly believed. But to find out why Socrates would want to make such a claim, so other examples of his proclamations of ignorance must be examined.
One of the most explanatory statements Socrates makes to justify his claim of ignorance is also found in The Apology. He is telling the story of how, after receiving the news from Chaerephon that the Oracle at Delphi had proclaimed that there is no man alive who is wiser than Socrates, he travels the land seeking to find someone wiser than he is, and prove the Oracle wrong. However, every ‘wise’ man he meets disappoints him in the same way. In one such encounter with one of these teachers of wisdom, Socrates asks him about the nature of being honourable and good, to which the man provides no satisfactory answer. Afterwards, when Socrates ponders the conversation, we see the true nature of his ignorance:

“…quite possibly neither of us knows anything about being honourable and good. But he imagines he knows when he doesn’t, whereas I don’t imagine that – for really I don’t know. So at any rate I am wiser than he is in this small way: when I don’t know something, I don’t have the illusion that I do know it”

Socrates shows in this excerpt that he is wiser than other men of learning are, as...