Whether or not Socrates was the wisest person in the world.

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I . Introduction

Wisest is he who knows that he does not Know ' This was one of the statements attributed to Socrates who is regarded as one of mankind 's greatest teachers and the wisest man who ever lived . He was also considered as one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of philosophy . Socrates was a very ugly individual . He was potbellied had a bulging eyes and a snub nose . He did not write anything down Everything that we know about him was because

of Plato and other philosophers like Xenophon who discussed Socrates in their dialogues What is surprising is that he acquired the stature of being one of the most influential person in the history of philosophy without writing a single philosophical article (The Bluffer 's Guide to Philosophy ,

10 ) This essay aims to prove that Socrates was indeed the wisest man who has ever lived in this world . In the third subsection , I aim to present my arguments and reasons why I think Socrates is the wisest man who has ever lived . In the fourth subsection , I aim to present the antithesis to my arguments . In the concluding part , I aim to synthesize all the arguments taking into consideration the antithesis

II . Sophists

To understand Socrates however , it is important that a discussion be devoted to the so-called Philosophers during his time . They were known as the Sophists . The Sophists were famous during his time . They were not Athenian citizens but they wandered from city to city to deliver their lectures on philosophy for a fee . Philosophers like Socrates Plato and Aristotle criticized the Sophists for professionalizing the commercializing education (Sophists : The Origin of Western Philosophical Ethics

Socrates was very critical against the Sophists . It is said that Socrates defended philosophy and the society against the Sophists Michael Curtis , in the Great Political Thinkers : Volume 1 , asserted that : Socrates criticized the Sophists as a group for professing false knowledge , not in the sense of misleading or incorrect information , but in not penetrating sufficiently the significance of the subject they were treating (Curtis 26

One of the leading Sophists was Protagoras . They theorized that universal principles do not exist and if ever they existed man is not capable of knowing them . The Sophists therefore advocated a philosophy of relativism . Jostein Gaarder in `Sophies World ' attributed the statement Man is the Measure of all things (Gaarder 49 ) to Protagoras . He meant that man has no capability of knowing what is good or bad which is universally valid for anyone regardless of place and time . To know whether an act is good or bad will entirely depend on that particular individual . If an act is good for him , then it is considered good . Thus whether an act is good or bad will have to be considered in relation to man 's needs (Gaarder 50

III . Socrates as the Wisest Man

Socrates should be considered the wisest man because he changed the method of education...