The Book Of Dead Philosophers (critchley, Simon) / quote 5 of 18
Philosophy is erotic, not just epistemic
Socrates only seems to embody a weak paradox. On the one hand, Socrates is declared the wisest man in Greece by the Oracle at Delphi. On the other hand, Socrates always insists that he knows nothing. How therefore can the wisest man in the world know nothing? This seeming paradox evaporates when we learn to distinguish wisdom from knowledge and become lovers of wisdom, in other words, philosophers. For example, in The Republic, the object of inquiry is justice. ‘What is justice?’ asks Socrates and various more or less conventional views of justice are discussed, dismantled and dismissed. But in the central books of The Republic, Socrates does not give his interlocutors an answer to the question of justice or some theory of justice. Instead, we are given a series of stories – most famously the myth of the cave – that indicate to us indirectly the matter at hand. The path to justice, we are told, is only to be followed by orienting the soul towards the Good, which is precisely not a matter of knowledge but a work of love. Philosophy begins, then, with the questioning of certainties in the realm of knowledge and the cultivation of a love of wisdom. Philosophy is erotic, not just epistemic.