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Value Of Particles 'Knowing Oneself In Socrates'

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The main value that Socrates espouses is knowing oneself. He makes references to this several times throughout his address to the jury, beginning with the first line “I do not know, men of Athens, how my accusers affected you; as for me, I was almost carried away in spite of myself” (Plato 17a). This suggests that Socrates acknowledges that his accusers such talented speakers that they had the ability to cause him to even question who he was. His style of examining himself through questioning continues throughout his address when he considers how he has come to be known as wise. He asks what kind of wisdom he could possess and answers “Human wisdom, perhaps. It may be that I really possess this, while the others whom I mentioned just now are wise with a wisdom more than human,” which denotes his …show more content…

These accusers claim that he is “a student of all things in the sky and below the earth, who makes the worse argument stronger. Those who spread that rumor, gentlemen, are my dangerous accusers, for their hearers believe that those who study these things do not even believe in the gods” (Plato 18b). This means that he is accused of teaching scientific explanations for heaven and earth ad convincing people of erroneous facts through rhetoric, leading people to believe that he doesn’t believe in God.
He first addresses the accusation of “studying things in the sky and below the earth” by saying that he knows nothing about such things and denies that anyone has ever heard him even speak about them (Plato 19b-19d). He then addresses the accusation of teaching others how to make a weak argument strong. He says that these people, the sophists, charge a fee and that he has never charged a fee to anyone (Plato

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