The Paradox of Wisdom - SL#6

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One day, Socrates’ friend Chaerephon came running back from the Oracle at Delphi (the sacred place where Greeks sought answers from the gods) with urgent news.

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“The Oracle has spoken,” he told him. “They asked if anyone was wiser than you… and the answer was clear: no one is wiser than Socrates.”

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Socrates’ first reaction was doubt. He didn’t want to challenge the gods, but he couldn’t believe it either. He didn’t feel wise at all. He had no books, no doctrines, no grand teachings. Just questions.

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So Socrates, still astonished by the Oracle’s words, set out to test them. He went to the people considered wisest in Athens: politicians, poets, craftsmen.

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Each time he questioned them, he found the same thing: they were full of certainty, but when pressed, their answers collapsed.

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At last, Socrates understood the lesson. If he was the wisest man alive, it was only because he knew that he knew nothing.

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But Socrates’ story did not end with praise. It ended in tragedy.

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He was accused of corrupting the youth, teaching them to question authority, and of impiety, for not believing in the city’s gods.

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Condemned to death, he faced the verdict with composure. He refused to flee, choosing instead to honor the laws of Athens. And so he drank the cup of poison, dying with dignity before his friends.

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Socrates became one of the greatest philosophers in history, still studied and debated to this day.

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He died, paradoxically, teaching us his final lesson. Perhaps the greatest of all: the resilience of a life lived in truth.

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When the world pushes you down, keep your head up. When it lifts you up, keep it on your shoulders.

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All the best,

Hugo Ares,
Student of life.

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