The great Athenian philosopher Socrates is widely lauded as one of history’s wisest men, a reputation forged by his pupil Plato.
In the course of his Apology of Socrates, Plato tells a curious story. The Apology consists of the speeches that, according to Plato, Socrates delivered at his trial in Athens in 399 BC, and at one point Socrates feels he needs to explain why he has a certain reputation for wisdom. He says that his close and impulsive friend Chaerephon once paid a visit to the Pythia, the oracle in Delphi, to ask whether Socrates was the wisest man alive. The oracle proclaimed it so.
As a humble man, Socrates was puzzled by this, and set about questioning anyone he could buttonhole who had a reputation for wisdom or expertise in any area. He discovered that none of the so-called experts really deserved their reputation; they were incapable of giving coherent definitions of the concepts fundamental to their areas of expertise. He concluded that the Pythia was correct, at least in the sense that he, Socrates, was the only one who knew he did not know, the only one who did not suffer from a false conceit of wisdom.
The story has a kind of internal plausibility. ....