from Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
"Are you sitting comfortably, Sophie? Because it is central to the rest of this course that you fully understand the difference between sophists and philosophers. The Sophists took money for their more or less hairsplitting expoundings, and sophists of this kind have come and gone from time immemorial. I am referring to all the schoolmasters and self-opinionated know-it-alls who are satisfied with what little they know, or who boast of knowing a whole lot about subjects they haven't the faintest notion of...A real philosopher, Sophie, is a completely different kettle of fish - the direct opposite, in fact. A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little. That is why he constantly strives to achieve true insight. Socrates was one of these rare people. He knew that he knew nothing about life and about the world. And now comes the most important part: it troubled him that he knew so little...
To be precise: Mankind is faced with a number of difficult questions that we have no satisfactory answer to. So now two possibilities present themselves: We can either fool ourselves and the rest of the world by pretending that we know all there is to know, or we can shut our eyes to the central issues once and for all and abandon all progress. In this sense, humanity is divided. People are, generally speaking, either dead certain or totally indifferent...
Socrates was neither certain nor indifferent. All he knew was that he knew nothing...so he became someone who does not give up but tirelessly pursues his quest for truth."
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Is it more exhuasting to know it all or wrestle for truth? Is it a more peaceful life to do nothing or to engage with truth?
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