could say in truth that they did not know enough even
to realize the extent of their ignorance. The world has long been
familiar with the vivid portrayal of the Socratic consciousness which is
contained in Plato's "Apology." Socrates had set out in life with the
opinion that his was an age of exceptional enlightenment. But as he
came to know men he found that after all no one of them really knew what
he was about. Each "sight-loving, art-loving, busy" man was quite blind
to the meaning of life. While he was capable of practical achievement,
his judgments concerning the real virtue of his achievements were
conventional and ungrounded, a mere reflection of tradition and opinion.
When asked concerning the meaning of life, or the ground of his
opinions, he was thrown into confusion or aggravated to meaningless
reiteration. Such men, Socrates reflected, were both unwise and
confirmed in their folly through being unconscious of it. Because he
knew that vanity is vanity, that opinion is indeed mere opinion,
Socrates felt himself to be the wisest man in a generation of dogged
unwisdom.

[Sidenote: Socrates's Self-criticism a Prophecy of Truth.]

Sect. 158. It is scarcely necessary to point out that this insight,
however negatively it be used, is a revelation of positive knowledge.
Heraclitus and Parmenides claimed to know; Socrates disclaimed knowledge
_for reasons_. Like all real criticism this is at once a confounding of
error and a prophecy of truth. The truth so discovered is indeed not
ordinary truth concerning historical or physical things, but not on
that account less significant and necessary. This truth, it will also be
admitted, is virtually rather than actually set forth by Socrates
himself. He knew that life has some meaning which those who live with
conviction desire at heart to realize, and that knowledge has principles
with which those who speak with conviction intend to be consistent.
There is, in short, a rational life and a rational discourse.
Furthermore, a rational life will be a life wisely directed to the end
of the good; and a rational discourse one constructed with reference to
the real natures of things, and the necessities which flow from these
natures. But Socrates did not conclusively define either the meaning of
life or the form of perfect knowledge. He testified to the necessity of
some such truths, and his testimony demonstrated both the blindness of
his contemporaries and also his own deficiency