Plato's Apology
...hing of which they formed an opinion. It can sometimes be said that Socrates is an icon, or representation of the god Apollo for that reason. A friend from Socrates’ youth, Chaerphon, went to the oracle at Delphi and asked it if there was anyone wiser than Socrates. The response from the oracle was that there was no one wiser. Socrates could not believe the response because he felt himself to not be wise at all. He knew, though, that the oracle would not speak falsehoods, so he wanted to find meaning in the oracle’s answer. Socrates devised a plan to find the truth in the oracle’s answer. He decided that he would go to politicians, craftsmen, and poets whom were said and thought to be wise in order to find someone wiser than himself to tell the oracle of such a person. But Socrates concluded that in all the cases these men were not really wise at all because they knew only one thing well and that makes them think that they know everything that they really know nothing of at all. Socrates, on the other hand, did not think that he knew anything worthwhile because he did not. The others did not know anything but they thought they did, making Socrates wiser. Socrates supposed that he was wisest of all because he was the only one who knew that lacking episteme, scientific knowledge, that he lacked wisdom as well. This supposition had some truth but not all. If he was wisest of all he could not possibly lack wisdom. He had wisdom enough to know that he was wisest of all and he showed wisdom in the way he went about proving the oracle’s answer. Socrates was then skeptical toward people whose reputations for wisdom were based on doxa, or opinions and beliefs. In this skepticism Socrates was correct. That was the entire basis of his plan and since it was proved true, one should be skeptical about people whose wisdom is not known for a fact. Socrates single-handedly proved that many so-called wise people of his time were not really wise at all. That taught Socrates the lesson not to believe someone unless they prove it. People started talking slander against Socrates because they disliked him. They spoke this slander and disliked him because of what he was doing. The people who disliked him were mostly the people that he tested and also those who were present while he tested others. These people started to talk to other people about Socrates and what he did (went around testing people). So, eventually even people who did not even witness Socrates’ testing of people disliked him. Since all these people disliked him they started rumors about him. Also, the youth would follow Socrates around and ...