Practice question · Multiple choice
The elenchus typically concludes in aporia rather than a positive definition. What follows from this outcome for someone attempting to live an examined life?
Hints
- What prevents someone from genuinely seeking knowledge in the first place?
- Why does Socrates treat the realisation of one's own ignorance as a form of wisdom rather than failure?
Show the answer
D. It provides the necessary clearance of false certainty to begin
Why
Aporia is not nihilism, cultural relativism, or political negotiation; it is therapeutic. By exposing internal contradictions, the elenchus dismantles unexamined confidence, which Socrates regarded as the essential prerequisite for genuine inquiry into how one ought to live.
Practise Socrates
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More questions on Socrates
- Socrates was tried and executed in 399 BC. How many years ago was that, counting from the year 2000 AD?
- Why does Socrates conclude he is wiser than those who claim knowledge?
- Socrates held that it is better to suffer injustice than to commit it.
- Arrange these events in the order they occurred.
- Which claims are attributed to Socrates?
- Sort each statement by whether it is a fair or unfair characterisation of the elenchus.