And so I had the guts (or should I say the lack of doing more sensible things) to open my long been abandoned email account. I had shifted to another provider since the email address of the first is jerkiness overload, which is understandable because I was a young, naive lass back when I signed up for it; first year high school, I think. Haha. Okay, to cut the long story short, I stumbled upon this in my mail's sent items folder -- a reflection from Plato's The Apology I wrote back in my college sophomore year for my Philosophy 1 class. I know it's not much but writing regarding a more serious topic is rare for me these days. I miss writing. I just don't know if it misses me back.
“I am conscious that I am not wise, although I am wiser than some men because I at least know this truth about myself” –Socrates.
Innocence brings no fear. Those who
know that they do not have any knowledge to boast for are far wiser than those
who boast of knowledge they do not know. Innocence brings confidence in what
one speaks—for no one knows what absolute truth is.
Human beings are known for having
the supreme ability to think among all living things, thus, this gave them a
lot of opening to think, rethink, and rethink of ideas and thoughts among
themselves. Primarily, those ideas give them their own self-beliefs and principles
to hold on to. They believed those
thoughts give them wisdom, hence, it gives them power or edge among others who
doesn’t have. But I doubt that—for no one knows if what he says or believes is
certain and absolute.
Socrates knew that he knew nothing:
he knew nothing that is certain; he knew nothing that is absolute. And knowing
that he does not know those things make him wise, very wise. If one could only
know and accept things that he knows and things he do not, then he can have a
vision of how wise he is.
We know nothing of death according
to Socrates, and therefore it is irrational to fear it. How appealing to know a
man who does not fear death. We do not know what absolute things will happen
after our death but then, we continuously fear it. It is what we believed—or
merely what is thought to us. As one thought pierce deeply into the mind of
one, it takes a lifetime to suck it all out.
