Was Socrates Wise Or A Wise Guy Essay, Research Paper
Socrates was a unique individual with an unordinary style of living. One main goal everyday for Socrates was to determine wheter or not what the oracle said was true. He would do this by asking questions to individaulas. What he wanted us to know was if he was actually the wises man in Greece. He wanted to see if no one was wiser! To our generation living today, the question still arises of wheather Socrates knew what he was talking about or was he just being a bullshitter.
2000 years later he still exists in our minds and our hearts. He was a knowledgeable man who knew people better than they knew themselves, but that still does not prove that he was wise. Nowadays to be wise means several different things. One definition is to have the power to discern and judge properly to what is true and right. Socrates did just that, that is why they killed him. To those who followed him, Socrates was just speaking the truth, saying what he had on his mind. Yet to those who opposed him he was a wise guy, which means to be concited, which he was showing everybody that he was wiser than them. Wise guy also means insolentand smart aleck, which Socrates also proved he was wiser than them. Wise guy also means insolentand smart aleck, which Socrates also proved he was by disproving high-powered people such as politicians, and also disrespecting the jury at his court case.
In this day in age, most people assume that a wise guy is a person who gets through life in deceiving, corrupting, and robbing others. Just like the people who see in mobster movies. A wise person that would fit the present day definition would judge on the Supreme Court. Socrates does not fit either one of those character descriptions.
If he lived in our Society, people who did not believe what he was saying, people who thought that they were actually wiser than him, would pass him as a bum, a crazy person, or a person they would pay no mind to whopever, regarless of what he was saying was true or not. To those few who would actually stop and listen to a man asking others questions would actually realize that he knew what he was talking about. They would pass him as an honest, humble, out-of-the-ordinary person.
To those who love, respect, understand, believe and worship Socrates he was a wise man. TO THOSE WHO ARE CONFUSED AND MAKE IRRATIONAL DECISIONS IN THEIR LIFE, HE WOULD BE SOMEONE LOOKING FOR TROUBLE, A WISE GUY.