Plato's "trial and death of socrates", Explains socrates view of self-examination (meditation) as the path to knowledge.

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Knowledge as Self-Examination

Socrates had an important point to make when he said," I do not think I know what I do not know." This was the reason why Socrates believed himself wiser than the wise men of Athens. This was the only reason Socrates was wiser than the other men considered wise in Athens. Socrates knew he didn't know something if he had no knowledge of it; where as, the men considered wise thought that they knew something when in fact they did not know it. This gave Socrates an important advantage over the other men in Athens. How can someone know the truth and gain mass amounts of knowledge if that person doesn't know and have great knowledge of his or herself.

Socrates analyzed everything including his own knowledge and actions. Socrates realized that wisdom can be obtained by self-examination and by speaking the philosophical language. He spoke the philosophical language and understood the questioning process as his own understanding of life.

That is why the people of Athens sometimes misunderstood the message of what Socrates was speaking about. Most of the Athenians didn't understand the philosophical language or Socrates' way of thinking and analyzing, thus lacked the ability to gain philosophic knowledge.

Meletus, for example, did not understand the philosophic language and probably had never spent hours of self-examination. Meletus didn't understand what Socrates was saying, and he greatly misunderstood how Socrates cared for the community. On the other hand, Socrates did truly care for the community, but Meletus did not understand the philosophic language or Socrates style of thinking. This caused Meletus to have a disliking for Socrates and caused Meletus to cause the death of Socrates. Meletus showed he really did not care for the good of the community. Yet, to gain notoriety in...