Socrates was considered a wise man because he knew that he did not know anything. Socrates believed that people went around thinking they knew more than they actually knew, and pretended to know things that they could not truly be certain of.

Socrates begins all wisdom with wondering, thus one must begin with admitting one’s ignorance. After all, Socrates’ dialectic method of teaching was based on that he as a teacher knew nothing, so he would derive knowledge from his students by dialogue.

At the trial, Socrates says, “The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing.” Socrates put emphasis on knowledge all his life because he believed that “the ability to distinguish between right and wrong lies in people’s reason not in society.” Learning was the only thing, Socrates was concerned about …

Perhaps his greatest contribution to education is the use of the Socratic Method. With this method, the teacher can make the student sharpen his reasoning faculty, improve his own.

Socrates’ most important contribution to Western philosophy was his technique for arguing a point, known as the Socratic technique, which he applied to many things such as truth and justice.

The Socratic legacy is in turning critical thought quite directly in the direction of humanity, human morality and virtue and the idea of a good life for a human. Socrates’ theory of the soul and its virtue and the use of reasoning in the service of virtue were lasting contributions to humanity.

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.” ~ Socrates.

One of his associates, Aristippus of Cyrene—his followers were called “Cyrenaics,” and their school flourished for a century and a half—affirmed that pleasure is the highest good. (Socrates seems to endorse this thesis in Plato’s Protagoras, but he attacks it in Gorgias and other dialogues.)