SOCRATES 'IRONY OF DENIAL OF KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

Abstract: Traditional interpretations attribute to historical Socrates the most modest claim of recognizing one's own ignorance. Searching for the meaning of Socrates 'claim to deny knowledge, we encounter the problem of Socrates, ie the fact that he did not write his philosophy, also the question of distinguishing Socrates from Plato's philosophy, then the question of the meaning of Socrates' irony of denial of knowledge, if the notion of irony history. In this paper, I first consider which source is plausible to consult in the case of the problem of Socrates' irony of denial of knowledge. The first part of the paper presents different approaches to the problem of Socrates' irony, approaches of interpreters who recognize different meanings of the concept of irony throughout history. Socrates' ambiguous discourse on the possibility of possessing knowledge prompted many interpreters to opt for one solution: either that Socrates speaks the truth when he denies knowledge, or that he pretends, deceives, or in some way seeks to conceal his knowledge. However, there are also interpretations that distinguish different types of knowledge in Socrates' epistemology, which results in the distinction between knowledge that Socrates acknowledges and that which he denies.