Going by the Athenian way, Socrates would not have been considered a theios aner, divine man or one who is of or from the Gods. This is because the Gods of the city were nothing more than deified doxa and Socrates was said to not give the Gods the proper respect they so deserved, but Socrates gave the doxa that the Gods were based upon respect. So, he would not have been considered a man of the gods under Athenian classification.

Socrates practiced philosophy with the elenchos, cross-examination, refutation way. The first step of this refutation was to rob people of the assumption that their opinions, or doxa, were knowledge of the subject, that would be episteme. After making them realize that doxa is no

t the same thing as episteme, then he would lead them to the intellectual clarity regarding the thing of which they formed an opinion. It can sometimes be said that Socrates is an icon, or representation of the god Apollo for that reason.

A friend from Socrates’ youth, Chaerphon, went to the oracle at Delphi and asked it if there was anyone wiser than Socrates. The response from the oracle was that there was no one wiser. Socrates could not believe the response because he felt himself to not be wise at all. He knew, though, that the oracle would not speak falsehoods, so he wanted to find meaning in the oracle’s answer.

Socrates looked for wisdom in conversation with people whose knowledge consisted entirely of unexamined opinions. He did this because only then would he be able to find our for himself whether or not these people were truly wise. If the people were already examined they would already have been known for a fact to either be wise or unwise. But if he examined the unexamined he would find out for himself whether or not these people really had the wisdom they claimed or if they were not wise at all and only thought themselves to be wise.

Socrates was then skeptical toward people whose reputations for wisdom were based on doxa, or opinions and beliefs. In this skepticism Socrates was correct. That was the entire basis of his plan and since i

Some topics in this essay:
Socrates Gods, Court Plato, Apology Socrates, Court Court, Athenian Socrates, Gods Gods, Plato Apology, Apology Plato’s, oracle’s answer, people disliked, people socrates, wiser socrates, plato wrote apology, people wisdom, plato wrote, disliked people, people started, answer socrates, wise people, people disliked people, oracle’s answer socrates,