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Editorial

Society, Reason and Knowledge

by Rick Lewis

“I seem, then, in just this little thing to be wiser than this man at any rate, that what I do not know I do not think I know either.”
Socrates, in Plato’s Apology

According to Plato, this was part of Socrates’ defence speech in the trial that ended with his execution – so clearly the jurors found it unpersuasive. Socrates was a deeply irritating man, wandering around Athens entrapping prominent citizens into debates which usually ended in them blatantly contradicting themselves and admitting their own confusion and ignorance. Did he really know better than they? Or was he, as he claimed, merely a gadfly stinging them out of their complacency? He saw himself as serving the public good, and his statement above makes him sound a little like scientists today who have theories and opinions but also (ideally) hold their views provisionally, with a readiness to re-examine them and if necessary abandon them in the face of fresh evidence.

In any case, his occupation was a dangerous one.

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