The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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THE SOCRATIC IMPULSE 7
veterate ignorance, or conceit of knowledge that they
did not possess ;
and (b) the true way of one s attaining
knowledge, namely, by becoming explicitly conscious of
one s ignorance and of the cause of it (that is, confused
ideas), and so by directing one s effort to get rid of
confused ideas and to acquire clear ones. 1 In all this,
he never questioned the existence of truth or the pos
sibility of man s attaining it ;
but he saw that it had
to be strenuously pursued and carefully articulated.
Consequently, he made it his business to subject pre
vailing notions, generally accepted opinions,
as held in
concrete instances, in all departments of human interest,
to a strict criticism and review. It was not enough
to him that they should rest upon use and wont or
long-established custom :
they must s^and the test of
reason, or else be rejected. This meant, of course, a
revolt against tradition and against the lazy servile
acceptance of truth on mere authority. In which
attitude, there was unquestionably something unsettling,
even although his ultimate object was, like that of
Descartes, later on, 2 through doubt and searching to
attain Certainty to establish both truth and morality
on a sure foundation (see Diogenes Laertius, i. v. 7) ;
and, on the face of it, there seemed to be the same
dangerous tendency that characterized the scepticism
of the Sophists. Hence, we do not wonder that
Socrates should have been represented, as by Aristo
phanes in the Clouds, as a Sophist ;
nor is it matter for
surprise that he should ultimately have been condemned
to death on the charges of atheism and impiety and
1
See, e.g., Apologia and Thecetetus.
2
See his Discourse on Method and Meditations.