In the beginning of this piece, Socrates is told that there is no man wiser than himself, and his reaction, to me, is a bit unpredictable: he believes he can find someone wiser. Perhaps it is the difference in the times, but it seems as though if a man is told he is he wisest of them all, he doesn't choose not to believe it or disprove it, he becomes smug, arrogant and walks around believing he is the wisest of them all. Not Socrates. Instead, Socrates goes on a mission to find some man who is wiser than himself. He goes to the politicians and the poets thinking certainly there is a man among those groups who holds more wisdom than himself. What he finds, though, is that because of their own ignorance at not realizing they are the not the wisest, they are not wiser than him. That is what sets Socrates apart; the fact that he knows his limitations. Being the wisest doesn't mean being the smartest, it means knowing better. Socrates knows better than to speak of things he doesn't know anything about. He knows better than to believe some oracle about himself without testing to see if it is true. He knows doesn't know everything, he just knows better. That, in itself, is what makes Socrates the wisest of them all.
The more I wrote about the piece, the more I understood the assignment and what was expected of me. This probably isn't that great, but it did get me thinking about what makes wisdom wisdom and why Socrates has the most. To me, wisdom comes from experience and choosing to learn rather than thinking you know all the answers, but before this I had never really put a lot of thought into it.
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