Socrates says at once point in his defense that "the greatest good of man is daily to converse about virtue, and all that concerning which you hear me examining myself and others, and that the life which is unexamined is not worth living." The entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi was the source for this "know thyself" concern.

Perhaps before Socrates it only meant that each person should know their place and behave the way their position in society dictated to them. Socrates changed this to mean something more.

Knowledge is virtue. We should know as much about ourselves as we can. To think we know what we really do not is foolish but it can only be known as foolish in the eyes of others. In the eyes of Socrates, those who thought they knew themselves appeared as merely foolish. Once you learn how easily it is for us to be so foolish, you realize the life you were leading was not nearly as wonderful as it has become with knowing how little you really know!

In terms of my cognitive map Socrates was suggesting we move more to the center of the map.

How do we do that today? Next

These are the file names under the folder quest.

alt.htm chsu.htm Climb.htm CMap.htm CMap2.htm CMap3.htm com.htm empir.htm ex2.htm ex3.htm ex4.htm Faith.htm fire2.htm Fly.htm FSee.htm funny.htm h2.htm Idealism.htm insch.htm j2.htm l2.htm Lmap.htm Look1.htm Look2.htm Look3.htm Look4.htm Look5.htm Look6.htm Look7.htm Look8.htm Mean.htm Meta.htm Meta2.htm Music.htm Out.htm Over.htm Postmod.htm Postmod1.htm pr1.htm pr2.htm prag.htm Pre.htm prim.htm prim2.htm Realism.htm Reflect.htm rela.htm Relig.htm sci.htm skept.htm soc.htm start.htm Step1.htm tf.htm tf2.htm tf3.htm tff.htm Top.htm Unhappy.htm Unhappy1.htm univ.htm wise.htm wise2.htm

This page is maintained by William S. Jamison. It was last updated August 14, 2012. All links on these pages are either to open source or public domain materials or they are marked with the appropriate copyright information. I frequently check the links I have made to other web sites but each source is responsible for their own content.