pretending to know when they know nothing

from plato's apology of socrates.

-----

i nearly forgot who i was they were so persuasive

you shall hear from me the whole truth

indeed it would not be proper, gentlemen, for an old man like me to come before you like a boy moulding his words in pretty patterns

so i am simply quite strange to the style of this place

i must answer them, gentlemen, and try to get rid of the prejudice which you have had so long.

and i said euenos is a happy man, if really and truly he has this art and teaches it for such a modest fee

for all this talk about you, and such a reputation, has not arisen, i presume, when you were working at nothing more unusual than others do;

what in the world is his riddle? for i know in my conscience that i am not wise in anything, great or small; then what in the world does he mean when he says i am wisest?

so i am wiser than he is by only this trifle, that what i do not know i don’t think i do.

no wisdom enables them to compose as they did, but natural genius and inspiration

they knew what I did not, and here they were much wiser than i was

because they could manage their art well, each one claimed to be very wise in other things also, the greatest things, and this fault of theirs appeared to obscure their real wisdom.

i think, they find plenty of people who believe they know something, when they know little or nothing.

pretending to know when they know nothing.

but i say, gentlemen, that meletos is a criminal who is making a jest of serious things by prosecuting people lightly, by pretending to be serious and to care for things which he has never cared about at all.

you will be vexed, perhaps, like sleepers being awaked, and if you listen to anytos and give me a tap, you can easily kill me; then you can go on sleeping for the rest of your lives, unless god sends you such another in his care for you.

this has been about me since my boyhood, a voice, which when it comes always turns me away from doing something I am intending to do, but never urges me on.

such things those people used often to do to others, wishing to make as many as possible share their guilt.

and i maintain that i have been commanded by the god to do this, through oracles and dreams and in every way in which some divine influence or other has ever commanded a man to do anything.

but i am far from that, gentlemen; i do believe, in a sense in which none of my accusers does; and i trust you, and god himself, to decide about me in the way that shall be best both for and for you.

but what is that? what is proper for me to suffer or to pay, for not having the sense to be idle in my life, and for neglecting what most people care about, moneymaking and housekeeping and military appointments. . .?

but I went where I hope I might benefit each man separately with the greatest possible benefit, as I declare

but as it is I cannot disperse great prejudices in a moment

if again i say it is the greatest good for a man every day to discuss virtue and the other things, about which you hear me talking and examining myself and everybody else, and that life without enquiry is not worth living for a man, you will believe me still less If I say that. and yet all this is true, gentlemen, as i tell you, but to convince you is not easy.

but it was a lack which defeated me, although not of words; it was lack of effrontery and shamelessness, and of a willingness to make you the sort of addresses you would have liked best to hear.

but then i did not think I ought to do anything servile because of my danger

if there is no consciousness and it is like a sleep, when one sleeping sees nothing, not even in dreams, death would be a wonderful blessing.

if, then, death is like that, i call it a blessing; for so eternity seems no more than one night.

there, at all events, i don’t suppose they put anyone to death for that; for in that world they are happier than we are here, particularly because already for the rest of time they are immortal, if what people say is true.

i nearly forgot who i was they were so persuasive

you shall hear from me the whole truth

indeed it would not be proper, gentlemen, for an old man like me to come before you like a boy moulding his words in pretty patterns

so i am simply quite strange to the style of this place

i must answer them, gentlemen, and try to get rid of the prejudice which you have had so long.

and i said euenos is a happy man, if really and truly he has this art and teaches it for such a modest fee

for all this talk about you, and such a reputation, has not arisen, i presume, when you were working at nothing more unusual than others do;

what in the world is his riddle? for i know in my conscience that i am not wise in anything, great or small; then what in the world does he mean when he says i am wisest?

so i am wiser than he is by only this trifle, that what i do not know i don’t think i do.

no wisdom enables them to compose as they did, but natural genius and inspiration

they knew what I did not, and here they were much wiser than i was

because they could manage their art well, each one claimed to be very wise in other things also, the greatest things, and this fault of theirs appeared to obscure their real wisdom.

i think, they find plenty of people who believe they know something, when they know little or nothing.

pretending to know when they know nothing.

but i say, gentlemen, that meletos is a criminal who is making a jest of serious things by prosecuting people lightly, by pretending to be serious and to care for things which he has never cared about at all.

you will be vexed, perhaps, like sleepers being awaked, and if you listen to anytos and give me a tap, you can easily kill me; then you can go on sleeping for the rest of your lives, unless god sends you such another in his care for you.

this has been about me since my boyhood, a voice, which when it comes always turns me away from doing something I am intending to do, but never urges me on.

such things those people used often to do to others, wishing to make as many as possible share their guilt.

and i maintain that i have been commanded by the god to do this, through oracles and dreams and in every way in which some divine influence or other has ever commanded a man to do anything.

but i am far from that, gentlemen; i do believe, in a sense in which none of my accusers does; and i trust you, and god himself, to decide about me in the way that shall be best both for and for you.

but what is that? what is proper for me to suffer or to pay, for not having the sense to be idle in my life, and for neglecting what most people care about, moneymaking and housekeeping and military appointments. . .?

but I went where I hope I might benefit each man separately with the greatest possible benefit, as I declare

but as it is I cannot disperse great prejudices in a moment

if again i say it is the greatest good for a man every day to discuss virtue and the other things, about which you hear me talking and examining myself and everybody else, and that life without enquiry is not worth living for a man, you will believe me still less If I say that. and yet all this is true, gentlemen, as i tell you, but to convince you is not easy.

but it was a lack which defeated me, although not of words; it was lack of effrontery and shamelessness, and of a willingness to make you the sort of addresses you would have liked best to hear.

but then i did not think I ought to do anything servile because of my danger

if there is no consciousness and it is like a sleep, when one sleeping sees nothing, not even in dreams, death would be a wonderful blessing.

if, then, death is like that, i call it a blessing; for so eternity seems no more than one night.

there, at all events, i don’t suppose they put anyone to death for that; for in that world they are happier than we are here, particularly because already for the rest of time they are immortal, if what people say is true.