Socrates’ Questagainst their elders and betters. That too was a serious charge in
a city that hoped for so much from the next generation.
This can be seen happening in the so-called Socratic dialogues
of Plato, ones that Plato probably wrote early in his career,
so refl ecting what he had learnt from his teacher and not yet
wholly shaped as his own. With them we can drill down a little
more into what this philosophy of wise ignorance meant in
practice.
Take the Lysis. It begins with Socrates out and about in
Athens. He is walking between the Academy and the Lyceum,
and, at the invitation of two young men, Hippothales and
Ctesippus, he stops just outside the city walls – perhaps near
the present-day dusty excavations of Kerameikos. They want
him to join them in their discussions by a newly built gymna-
sium. Gymnasia were a favourite haunt of Athenian youths. In
this one the statuesque Lysis was exercising, someone on whom
Hippothales had a massive crush. In the dialogue, Socrates spots
it immediately, albeit no great feat since Hippothales blushed
at the merest thought of his beloved. What is interesting for us,
though, is that Socrates tells Hippothales that he has a remark-
able ability to spot when someone is in love, as well as identify
the person with whom the lover is smitten.
What did Socrates mean by this? It is, in fact, directly related
to what he discovered about himself after grappling with the
words of the oracle. He is a lover of wisdom, like Hippothales
is a lover of Lysis; both lack what they desire. The comment,
which is repeated in other dialogues too, provides an insight
into how Socrates must have felt, not just thought, about his
calling as a philosopher. At times it ached. Hence the reason
Socrates can spot lovers: he has an immediate sympathy with
them. This seems likely to have been another reason why he got
on so well with young men. It also shows that although Socrates
was convinced the human lot was riven through and through
with uncertainty, it did not mean he lacked passion. He was not
like the agnostic who shrugs their shoulders with indifference.
Rather, the lack of wisdom made his heart grow all the fonder