Essay 1: Argumentative Essay on Socratic Wisdom. Social Sciences Essay

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Essay 1: Argumentative Essay on Socratic Wisdom
Introduction
Socratic wisdom is a much-debated area in literature. According to Socrates, wisdom lies in a person's knowledge about the boundaries of his knowledge (Slings 25). According to this claim, a person is as wise as to which degree he does not claim to know what he does not know. A deep investigation into this argument reveals that it is partially agreeable because the perception and acknowledgement about the boundaries of knowledge cannot be set as an ultimate criterion of wisdom.
Socrates' Argument and Reasoning
Since Socrates did author his work, it was Plato who brought his philosophies into the limelight. In his book 'Apology', he introduces Socratic Wisdom which attaches no importance to the amount of knowledge a person possesses. Instead, it sets the criteria of wisdom in line with a person's ability to view and acknowledge the dark spots of perception. Socrates claims that a person who does not falsely claim about his knowledge is wise. On the other hand, a person who thinks or says he knows what he does not know falls below the standards of wisdom (Brickhouse and Nicholas 78). This argument is presented as a universally applicable law by Socrates.
Socrates found the grounds for this argument when one of his friends made Oracle's command known to him according to which Socrates was the wisest man. He went here and there to prove his claim wrong and met several people from different professions. After a detailed survey, Socrates found that he had met people with significant command on their areas of work about which they have good knowledge. However, each of them tries to claim falsely about the things being in his knowledge about which he or she knows nothing (Hardy and Kaiser 79). This made Socrates believe in the notion of his friend that he could be regarded as the wisest man because he knew where his knowledge ends and ignorance starts.
A deeper look into Plato's explanation of Socrates' work shows that Socrates' religious beliefs and how he made sense of life, death, and afterlife were also based on his understanding of wisdom. About death, Socrates says that "fearing death" is "unwise" because it fears is similar to pretend that a person knows about death being a fearful thing though death stands among unresolved mysteries (Westcott). Hence, his approach was the same as an agnostic to the matter of religion and metaphysics.
Assessment
Socratic wisdom makes sense in a way that exaggerated perception about one's kn...