I know that I know nothing

" I know that I know nothing" ( οἶδα οὐκ εἰδώς, Oida ouk eidos ) is a popular saying that is attributed as shortening falsifying a quotation from Plato's Apology Greek philosopher Socrates. The quote is in Plato for the development of their own knowledge of the unmasking of the apparent knowledge of the deliberate ignorance towards wisdom and knowledge of the good. Subtracting subsequent reports of the unwritten doctrine of Plato's approach to the nature of the good can be understood as a identical to the absolute. The Socratic knowledge of ignorance therefore initiated a dialectical way that leads to knowing not to know the absolute transcendence.

Apology of Socrates

The common translation of Oida ouk eidos does not hit the meaning of the statement. Literally translated, the saying is, "I know as a non- knower " or " I know that I do not know ." The additional " s" to " not " is a translation error because the phrase " I know that I know nothing" in ancient Greek οἶδα οὐδὲν εἰδώς ( Oida Ouden Eidos ) would be called. With his statement, therefore Socrates does not claim that he knew nothing. Rather, he questions what we think we know. Because of this supposed knowledge is only a proof -less for- course - holding, turns out to be untenable pseudo-knowledge, on closer examination. A certain knowledge is found in humans generally not, so you can be convinced only provisionally by his views. The statement holds ostensibly the paradox that the knowledge about the " ignorance" is a knowledge, from which one can not know for sure. It is not resolved in the Platonic dialogues of the protagonist Socrates himself. Rather early aporetic dialogues often end Plato in perplexity. The winged word is borrowed as a shortening of the defense speech of Socrates, which was narrated by Plato:

" And do you know yet how Chaerephon was as fierce in everything he might begin. So even when he was once gone to Delphi, he made ​​bold to desire here on an oracle - only, as I say, not troubled her men. - So he asked if anyone would be probably wiser than I am. Now denied the Pythia, that someone would be wiser. And here you can about this, his brother put this testimony, since that is already dead. Considering now, why I say this; I want to tell you that is where but the libel arose against me. Because after I heard this, so I thought to myself: What does surely the God? And what he wants about implying? For I am still aware that I am neither much nor little example. So what he means by saying that I was the wisest? For he is lying but probably not; which is not vouchsafed him yes. And for a long time I could not understand what he meant; finally I turned even reluctant to investigate the matter in the following article I went to one of the for example a held to there, if anywhere, to convert the oracle and to show the saying: But this is surely wiser than I, you hast testified of me. As I gazed at this now, because to call him names is not necessary, but it was one of the statesmen on which it following looking formative happened to me, Athenians. In conversation with him me this man other men seemed though many also, but most of all himself very wise occur to be there but did not. Then now I tried to show him, although he believed to be wise, but it would not; which I then he was himself hated and many of those present. So As I walked away, I thought to myself, as this man I am certainly wiser. For it may well just neither of us know anything proficient or more than others; this alone but thinks he knows, because he does not know, but I, as I do not know exactly, I do not mean it. So I seem to this a few but to be wiser than he, that I do what I do not know, do not think I know. Then I went to another of the for even wiser than those Applicable, and it seemed to me just the same, and I was by him hated himself both as many others. After this now I went after the series, noting of course and regret and fear in the fact that I made ​​myself odious; but but it seemed to me necessary to the cause of God above everything else set to; and so I had to go for, always the oracle contemplating what it my well to know at all which were for something. "

Pseudo-knowledge, ignorance and wisdom

Negation as enlightened attitude

Socrates leads with his knowledge of not knowing the thoughts of Xenophanes further that emanates only from the pseudo-knowledge. Δόκος δ ἐπὶ πᾶσι τέτυκται, . " And a pseudo-knowledge is preparing for all" Deceptive appearance in the outside world and wrong My people correspond. Meaning it takes on the appearance.

"And Exact saw indeed no man and never will be someone who knows ( has seen ) with respect to the gods and all the things that I only ever mention; because even if it were possible one in the highest degree, to pronounce a Consummate, as he himself has nevertheless no knowledge; Schein ( my ) clings to anything. "

Socrates deals with this issue in Plato's dialogue Meno, in which he says to him: [ ... ] σὺ δὲ μέντοι ἵσως πρότερον μὲν ᾔδησθα, πρὶν ἐμοῦ ἅψασθαι, νῦν μέντοι ὅμοιος εἶ οὐκ εἰδότι. - [ ... ] Of course you knew perhaps earlier before you came in contact with me, of course, now you're like a non- knower. Again, Socrates plays on changing the opinion Menon, who was convinced of his opinion and his " knowledge" was refuted by Socrates before. Something similar happened to Protagoras, who took to the foregoing, after objections from Socrates the opposite opinion. Wisdom begins so well for Socrates with the unmasking of the apparent knowledge. The means to do so was his steady, drilling effort to go to the bottom of things and not be satisfied with the superficial. He wanted to bring the "best album " for language, time and location independent, unchanging essence of the matter. Socratic philosophy means an inner emotion, an attitude that thinking and being determined, resulting in the translation of the word philosophy is expressed as " love of wisdom ": the love is the only thing of which he understood something.

The knowledge of Socrates to his lack of knowledge is expressed negatively of him. It is not clear, because it is first spoken of knowledge in the sense of certainty or confidence at all, in the intentional sense as consciousness of something here of the thinking ego. As in skepticism Socrates distinguishes between truth and certainty, the truth is finally subordinated to the certainty. But the Socratic skepticism does not affect the everyday consciousness, it is not comprehensive. It refers to the knowledge of the nature, in particular the moral knowledge of the soul. He is interested not scientific or mathematical knowledge, but the knowledge of good and evil. Besides the problem of obtaining a universal definition, the question arises, what certainty is possible about the nature of virtue. The moral truth is subjective, and in subjectivity is for Socrates, the only possible access to the goodness. Only the ethics of Immanuel Kant has shown that the moral quality of human action is not capable of cognition. However, the negation of a secure knowledge of the values ​​by Socrates is not destructive. Guides you through a creation of the future and freed from unthinkingly accepted, traditional ways of life. Thus Socrates takes an enlightening attitude, their freedom and independence may be perceived as offensive. Gernot Böhme has the type described Socrates as Atopos:

" Socrates of Placeless. Socrates, the strange man, the stranger, the alien quality of the nerd. Socrates, the Showy, the troublemaker, the anti-social elements. Socrates, the maladjusted, the paradox, the absurd existence. Atopos is his epithet - that is the Placeless. [ ... ] Socrates is the archetype of the philosopher. If this is true, then philosophy is something very disconcerting. "

The special wisdom of Socrates is the ongoing willingness to examine the epistemological and logical foundations of human knowledge. He will be always aware of the limits of human knowledge. The philosophy will be with him in the unity of the person and knowledge comes to an event, expressed. Therefore, the crucial trait of the Socratic philosophy finds its adequate expression in the dialog.

The path of dialogue

Socrates called in his defense speech the god Apollo at Delphi as a guarantor of the veracity of his philosophizing. Apollo is the god of light and the eternal present. He leads a constant battle against all that is dark. For him, everything is present and unconcealed. It illuminates the darkness, what is not revealed and is hidden. It is therefore also the God of truth. From this God Socrates was called to wisdom rather than as wise - as he pointed the oracle. He therefore asked others who were considered wise to learn from them. So it came to the debates with the Sophists, the sages of his time, those at public offices Athenians, acquaintances and friends. Unlike the Sophists, he did not pay for his teaching. For him it was important to find a secure foundation for human knowledge. He believed this foundation lies in the reason. He was of the opinion that the person who knows what is good, will also do the good. He believed that the right knowledge leads to right action. And only those who do the right thing going to the right people. When a person is wrong, he does so from Socrates ' point of view only because he would not know it. That is why it is so important to increase the wisdom. Served this purpose introduced by Socrates inductive method to teach in an open-ended process in the form of question and answer:

" In the Socratic speech and thinking is forced waiver, a waiver, without which there would be no Socratic philosophy. This is possible only because Socrates does not get further in the field of knowledge and escape competes in the dialog. Socratic philosophy has become dialogical in nature, because the exploratory Discover seemed impossible. "

This form of conversation was the original form of philosophical thought and the only way to communicate with other for him. Reminder ( Protreptikos ) and examination ( elenchos ) moved with him in the form of a question. A good example of this is his defense speech:

"I am to you, Athenians, though devoted and friend, but obey I will the god more than you, and as long as I breathe and it can, I will not stop to look for wisdom, and to exhort you and rebuke, who by I meet you, with my usual speeches, such as: Best Man, as an Athenian of the largest and most famous city for wisdom and power, are not you ashamed to take care of money though, as you at the most erlangest of this, and for fame and honor; but for insight and truth and for your soul, they located themselves in the best way, do not you worry, and thereafter will not you think? And if any of you denies this and claims he think probably it, I will not release him immediately and go away, but ask him and check and investigate. And when I think, he possessed no virtue, but say it, so I'll refer to him that he respects the most important low and the worse later. So I'm going with young and old, as I meet them up, process and with strangers and citizens, so much more but you citizens, as you are more closely related to me. For just know only, it commands the god. And I for my part think that never greater good has happened to the state than this service, I make as God. Because otherwise I do when I go around to persuade young and old among you, nor before nor anywhere so much to care for the body and for the assets than for the soul. "

Their own ability to understand, finally, should - through questions - and not by pontificating the interlocutor, as the sophists towards their students practiced: To establish clarity, Socrates served its own method known as Maieutics - - a kind of " spiritual midwifery " is called knowledge of the Good ( Agathon ) and Noble ( Kalón ) even " give birth " or produce. However, this objective was reached in the dubiousness of his own knowledge without insight.

" Socrates, the teacher performs regularly as a student. Not he wants to teach others, but to be instructed by them. He is ignorant of his philosophy in the form of ignorance occurs. Conversely, he brings his interlocutors in the position of the knower. The most flattering and provokes them to spread their supposed knowledge. Only in the consistent demands turns out that they are even the ignorant. "

Socrates ' irony was not designed to make the other ridiculous, but to give him his inadequacy as something to recognize what one could laugh himself, instead of being contrite. How difficult, and often impossible to many of his interlocutors was showing the Platonic dialogues. As unhelpful the addressee found them also to be dismantled in the public of the Agora in this way, especially since Socrates ' pupils practiced in this kind of dialogue in doubt. The aim was not bookish knowledge, but wisdom. Socrates proclaimed the self-liberation, self- rule and self-sufficiency of moral personality. To the results achieved by Socrates was that right action from the correct insight follows and that justice is fundamental condition of salvation.

"In the question of the good actually is the service for the Delphic god. The idea of ​​the good is ultimately the philosophical sense of the Delphic oracle. "

Therefore, the investigations of Socrates revolved mostly around questions of ethics: What is piety? What is self-control ( Enkratie )? What is prudence? What is bravery? What is justice? These virtues ( Aretai ) Socrates understood as excellences of the soul, as strength, health and beauty are the virtues of the body. Physical and mental virtue is a symmetry of the parts on their interaction body and soul based. True virtue is indivisible and one that you can not have a part of her and the other not. In Good Socrates recognized the truly useful, salutary and Auspicious, because it leads the nature of man to fulfill his nature. The ethical is the expression of correctly understood human nature. Free man is only if he is not the slave of his own desires. So Xenophon makes his protagonist Socrates say:

"You, Antifon, seem to put the happiness in luxury and great effort; I am convinced, however, that nothing need something divine, and so the best thing is they have the fewest needs, what the Divine is the best on the next. "

The man does not reach the line with the world as a whole by the satisfaction of his sensual needs, but "only by the consummate self-mastery according to the law, which he finds through research in his own soul. " Is the true goal of life is the knowledge of the the good. The necessary rise to the truth of the Absolute Plato describes the sun parable, the parable line and the allegory of the cave.

Johann Georg Hamann

Johann Georg Hamann wrote in 1759 Socratic Memorabilia. He uses many metaphors and a partially dark language. He linked the motto of the Oracle of Delphi "Know thyself! " With the maxim of Socrates "I know that I know nothing ". The inscription on the temple of Apollo in Delphi urge to know itself. You know the word by heart, but without having understood it. You wear it so just before the end and not in the heart. Apollo must have the question about who was the wisest of all men, laughed. Only Socrates had recognized that he really knew nothing. After Hamann refers to the ignorance only when you have them learn how to Socrates himself. Ignorance can not be treated as a theorem. Hamann turns against the Enlightenment, which was convinced of the immutable reason. Reason must not deny their dependency and finitude. Reason is mediated by education, experience and the senses and ultimately historically. Therefore, it is also influenced by likes and dislikes.

" The health of the reason is the wohlfeilste, intrinsically powerful and shameless self- glory, through whom everything is set in advance what was to prove just, and which all free men of investigation of truth will gewaltthätiger excluded as the infallibility of the Roman Catholic Church. "

After Hamann all knowledge is based on beliefs that can not be justified or refuted by reason itself. Anyone who thinks about something and it understands something, it brings its own requirements. This then also characterizes his findings. The enlightened philosophers lack the fear of God, which was the beginning of all wisdom. Faith belongs to Hamann for the " natural knowledge workers and its basic instincts of our soul." One can prove truths without believing them. The ignorance is to learn as sensation and only faith they make a living truth. For Hamann it is about an existential conviction to personal concern and not just to provide objective insight. The flip side of ignorance of Socrates is his daimon. Socrates can not describe his daimon. He is gifted, but does not have his creative power under control. He seduced his fellow citizens to a hidden truth. Socrates respected his daimon as a critical instance and look at it with fear of God.

" Socrates had thus be-ing freylich well ignorant; he had a genius on whose science he could rely, whom he loved and feared as his God. "

To be recognized by God 's own existential ignorance must be experienced by Hamann. He refers to the letter of Paul to the Corinthians ( 1 Cor 8:1-3 EU). If someone loves God, he would recognize him. It was necessary to again become like a child who let themselves bless with truth. True self-knowledge and knowledge of God are not to be detached from one another.

" Hence we see how necessary the same our self in the Creator is established that we are not in us. [ Erer ] have the knowledge of our own power, that of the same around the perimeter auszumäßen, we bit into the bosom of the Godhead dring [en ] need that can determine and resolve alone d [ as] whole mystery to us. [ eres ] being. [ ... ] God and my neighbor that is part of my self-knowledge, to my self-love. "

Kierkegaard and the Socratic irony

Søren Kierkegaard was in 1841 received his doctorate with a dissertation On the Concept of Irony with constant regardless of Socrates. He pointed the Socratic irony as a point of view of subjectivity, which had reached only up to the limit of the idea. She was the negativity that have not yielded positivity. You do not own the Sickly and Selfish later times. In the Socratic irony to show the subjectivity that their right make claims for the first time in world history. Socrates had raised the subjectivity to the universal so that he would become the founder of morality. The irony as infinite absolute negativity is the opposite of the view of the Prophet. Irony as speech lift either themselves or to be a form of vanity. They should not be confused with the irony of a perspective. Who interpret as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel irony as mere "manner of conversation ", has misunderstood the position of Socrates. The Notice of Hegel, that Socrates had been striving to make abstract ideas concrete, was so fashionable that he hardly remember Socrates. With Socrates by Kierkegaard irony is not only a means, but it has a relation to existence. It implements the knowledge of the lack of knowledge and is the expression of this insight. Thus it becomes an appropriate expression of existence. The Socratic ignorance is exemplary for thinking existence. The objective thinking is indifferent to the subject and its existence. The subjective thinker as Existing interested in his thought, because it exists in it. Only the recognition that behaves substantially to existence is essential knowledge. Recognizing that in the reflection of inwardness concerns the existence not inward is considered essential indifferent. The irony is an expression of existence as a categorical ignorance and leads to self-reflection. Human existence is characterized as a form of existence knowing ignorance.

" [ ... ] Easier and easier it lifts [ Socrates ] is in the air, everything looks among themselves waste away from his ironic bird's ago, and he himself hovering above it in an ironic self- satisfaction, supported by the schlechthinnigen internal consistency of the infinite negativity. "

The irony versa apparent insignificance of things for the self. Socrates leaves the gap between knowledge and ignorance, finitude and infinity. This is precisely the peculiarity of existence. The Socratic daimon laid the contradiction between the finite and the infinite in the interior and becomes a deputy of infinite entitlement to the finite self. The daimon is thus available for the reference to the transcendent or to that limit, which shows the basic ignorance. According to Kierkegaard, but offers only Christianity with the category of the jump a breakpoint. From the recognition of one's limitations, the possibility of faith opens up. The man could make the leap beyond the boundaries of knowledge in faith. The paradoxical situation is to assume and jump in one's own identity is to give up, to ever win the true identity only.

" Reflection is a loop in which one is caught, but by the enthusiastic religiosity jump is the relationship to another, through him it is the loop that takes a in the eternal arms. "

The interpretation of Popper's

Karl Popper referred to throughout his life to Socrates. In particular, Plato's Apology of Socrates is one of the philosophical works he admired most. Popper assumes that the apology is historically genuine. She was a faithful report of what Socrates had said before the Court in Athens. Socrates emphasize that he was aware of his intellectual limitations. He is self-critical and a critic of any jargons. Therefore Popper assumes that Socrates as he was a falsificationist itself. After falsificationism is subject to any theory of the possible inaccuracy. It is impossible to prove in the field of empirical sciences the truth of a theory. The fallibility of all knowledge must be recognized. If you overtake the profession of philosophers, one should be like Socrates. Plato as the most brilliant student of Socrates had betrayed his teacher. While Socrates had just recognized the wisdom of the statesman that he was extremely modest in its claims, Plato had this idea on its head: That must be the statesman example, mean a claim to Plato. This will Plato into a spiritual pioneer of political totalitarianism. Episode one Socrates, so one must do politics on the principle of trial and error. It then were a piecemeal technique:

" As Socrates knows the piecemeal engineer, how little he knows. He knows that we can only learn from our mistakes. Therefore, he will only proceed step by step and always compare the expected results carefully with the achieved ... "

The wisdom of Socrates is by Popper therefore no positive knowledge, but a state of consciousness. Whether drawn by Popper contrast between the two philosophers actually exists in this focus, however, is doubtful. On the one hand we meet Socrates in Plato 's works just as its protagonist and teachers. As Socrates had prayed to the sun and therefore the highest good in the intelligible world given the dignity of a divine principle which Plato then described in the parable sun closer. Secondly, the starting point of Socrates is not necessarily an absolute lack of knowledge, but the consistent use of a dialectical argumentation with the aim to penetrate to the essence of the thing. The target of Socrates truth is reached and the single individual regardless alone on the way of rational thinking. Plato has further developed this idea: The wisdom lies in the fact that the philosopher attained in the ideas of the true knowledge of the nature of things. From the idea of good and a wise he can the sciences to provide a justification.

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