Epistemic Humility: An Ancient Path to Wisdom
The best thing to know is that you know very little.
Socrates may have been the father of western philosophy, but he wasn’t the august, white-marble figure we often imagine. He was, by most accounts, a strange and irritating man.
He spent his life questioning the status quo and teaching his students — many of whom were children from rich families — to do the same. When he was put on trial for his life at age 70, Socrates defended himself in his characteristic style, interrogating the people around him.
Defending himself in court, Socrates acknowledged that he was an unpopular figure in Athens. In fact, he had irritated the Athenian people so widely that the comic author Aristophanes had written a whole play, The Clouds, mocking Socrates as an arrogant, nonsense-spewing charlatan. Socrates had questioned Athenians’ religious beliefs, educated some of the worst leaders in Athenian history, and generally made himself a pest.
Instead of acknowledging his reputation and apologizing, Socrates claimed that it was a virtue. He said that Athenians had come to hate him because he had exposed their…
