2 Quote Explications
1. “…I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent that I do not think I know what I do not know.”
The quote is originated from the book, Complete Works written by the author Plato and John Cooper on page twenty one. The quote was originally obtained from Plato who used the words to denote the quality of wisdom that an individual might attain. However, since Socratic was a student of Plato, there is various incidents that the quote has been used in his work. The original works was attribute by Plato who was illustrating that no one is wise in every aspect than the other. Even though an individual might be wiser in a given area, he/she might still need the assistance of an extra party in another diverse field.
When Plato suggests that, “I am wiser than this man, it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile” (Plato and Cooper 21), he implies that tough an individual might be wise in a given field, the knowledge gain might be useless in the normal life. For instance, in the current world, we all might have attained the educational knowledge. However, the information that we might attained might not be useful in every incident of life we experience hence one should not boost that he/she is wiser than another. The second beat of the phrase, “but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent that I do not think I know what I do not know” (Plato and Cooper 21) illustrates that no one knows everything hence one should not boost of what he knows since he/she does not know what the knowledge content of the other person.
2.”We step and do not step into the same rivers; we are and are not.”
The quote, “We step and do not step into the same rivers; we are and are not,” was originated from the book, Philosophy: A New Introduction which is written by the author Mann and Dann. The quote was found on the page 355 on the book, where the original works was written by Heraclitus. In his work, Heraclitus used the quote to literally imply that one can step into the same river twice but cannot step into the same waters twice. Since the water in a river is continuously moving, one cannot step into the same water again since the water is not stagnant. Through the use of the saying, Heraclitus was able to capture the attention of numerous readers in reading his works.
However, the in-depth meaning of the quote, “We step and do not step into the same rivers; we are and are not” (Mann & Dann 355), means as human beings, we do experience various situations in life. The rough and the tough situations that we experienced in the past, we cannot experience the same problems tomorrow. Heraclitus also used the quote to illustrate that as human beings; we should not be confined and troubled about the problems that we underwent the previous day. This is for the key reason that the problems that one experienced yesterday cannot reoccur today. The second beat of the quote, “we are and are not” (Mann & Dann 355), implies that one should not be judged from appearance but rather the actions and character of an individual.
Works cited
Mann, Doug, and G E. Dann. Philosophy: A New Introduction. Australia: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005. Print.
Plato and John M. Cooper. Complete Works. Indianapolis, Ind. [u.a.: Hackett, 2005. Print.
