Response to Aly Boughton's Knowledge Article

Article can be found at: http://aboughton.blogspot.com/2013/01/knowledge.html

I 100% agree with the statement that knowledge can be taught by school, and life. Making mistakes, trying to do whatever it is you want to do is how you gain knowledge. I believe that Socrates was criticized for his teaching methods, as it states in the chapter, "Socrates' genius was to transfer the rigorous truth-centered methods of scientific inquiry to questions of human nature and ethics," whereas the Sophists less passionate, methods were done as a profession.

Passion Over Everything

Although the Sophists asked the right questions - How should I live? What is virtue? How can I succeed in life? They lacked the passion Socrates had. On page 32, the text states that the Sophists had, "...disinterested use of reason in the pursuit of truth, which is necessary in order to answer these questions," which is why Socrates was such a "threat," to their ways of teaching. What is so important of Socrates’ response to the Sophists is that Socrates rejected both the cynicism and crass pragmatism of the Sophists and the ethereal speculation of the cosmologists. His response was a something new- something to be questioned, and often times, it was. Socrates’ often went against the Sophists “natural” ways, which again, he was the first person to do so.