Just Another Day

This week was nice with only having one day of class and all. Wednesday's reading was very hard for me to follow. It was the Pericles' "Funeral Oration." Apparently it was his famous speech for soldiers who died in war. At first, I really didn't think this speech was very appropriate for a funeral, it just didn't seem like it was meant for that purpose. Closer to the end of the speech, I was able to see some relations to funerals. There were several confusing words and phrases throughout the entire reading, this was definitely not my favorite reading. Friday's reading was from "The Trial and Death of Socrates" by Plato. We read the chapter titled "Apology." It was not actually an apology, but more of Socrates' explanation to the jury about his false charges that were brought against him by Meletus. He was charged for being a Sophist, which is just a fancy word for somebody who makes people pay them in order to hear "wise words." They were pretty much just like lawyers, because they taught people how to argue and win, not teaching them real truth. He was also charged with corrupting the youth, and not believing in the gods, but in other new spiritual things. This part is funny. Meletus is charging Socrates with not believing in the gods, making him an atheist. But then he is also charging him with believing in other new spiritual things, making him not an atheist. So these two charges pretty much cancel each other out.

I really liked the Greek definition of wisdom. It is "knowing the limits of your knowledge; comes from knowing that you don't know, rather than assuming specialized knowledge makes you wise." These are some profound words. I like how the Oracle says that Socrates is the wisest man alive, simply because he knows that he doesn't know anything. He goes around trying to find someone wiser than himself, but finds no one. And why is that? Because everybody else thinks they know everything. They can't admit that they really don't know shit. That makes me laugh. Another way of defining wisdom is "the lifelong pursuit of knowledge." Because it is pretty much impossible for any human being on earth to know everything, nobody is truly wise. But if they are constantly out there searching for the truth, that makes them wise.

I think that this chapter was kind of neat. I am almost (not quite, but almost) anxious to read the next chapter for next week.