Education via Humility

In Plato’s Apology, after the Oracle of Delphi declares that Socrates is the wisest man, Socrates decides to test this conclusion. He compares himself to others who are supposed to be wise, saying, “Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful or good, I am better off than he is–for he knows nothing, and thinks he knows; I neither know nor think I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him.” What Socrates is saying here is that those who are wisest are the ones who know just how little they actually know. This is why the Socratic method is so valuable. If we must recognize our own ignorance in order to be wise, asking questions seems the best way to educate. When a teacher asks questions of a text instead of pontificating about it as a master, the teacher shows the students how to be wise. Josh Gibbs says that a teacher must approach a book with the mind-set of a student, not a master, and Socrates’s method of questioning seems to be just that.