Ignorance as a portal or what Socrates knew he did not know
Man can exist without everything, but when we lose the joy of life, even for a while, a feeling of hopelessness that cannot be compared with anything emerges. If that loss goes hand in hand with the cognition of one’s own limitation, then the so called “dark night of the soul” can take longer. Whether due to the education system or the way the society breaths, every individual again and again must hit his head on the wall and experience the irrecoverable feeling that at the end, just like at the beginning, man remains mute and powerless before his own discovery of its brutal limitations – no matter how he works on himself, on his knowledge and his spiritual progress. Regardless of our perceptual or cognitive apparatus – the sense of your own limitation is painful – everything that looks like darkness has a source of light and vice versa. After all, that Socrates’ sentence – I know that I know nothing – is not only the ultimate conclusion of a soul that has faced its own limitation – but actually it is a portal! Biblically speaking, if the whole affliction of paradise expulsion originates from the tree of cognition, then it is natural that the fruits we eat more and more will not bring back the same paradise. No matter how much it looks exaggerated, let’s see what is the source of all conflicts between people, from family, political, social, religious, and emotional to philosophical? The very assurance that something is perfectly clear to us, leads us to believe that we are right, and then using the whole strength we attack those who are wrong but at the same time are sure that they are right as we are.
If we analyze the situations more closely, we will see that the more a man is confident in his own views on the good, the evil, the beautiful and the right, the simpler a rule – paradoxically the more stupid a man, the more certain he is smart. In that sense, the Socrates’ conclusion about knowing that knows nothing is not only the end point of the Western philosophy – it is also a real portal of human liberation since it is precisely the conviction that we know and understand something, makes us not only aggressive but also prepared to “die” for that cognition at any cost. When we exempt the psychopaths, all clashes, quarrels, hatred are product of the conviction that everything is clear to us about this world and its truth. That is why the Socrates’ sentence is actually a secret exit from the spiritual labyrinth of mankind. Because a man who thinks he knows something and understands it will not only come into conflict with others but with his own heart too! It is the moment of a cosmic trap when we are confused that what we believe in is what we know …
In the age of information when the civilization progress is measured by the performances of the mobile phone rather than our souls – both personal and collective salvation is in fact in this Socratic sentence. It is not just a way out of the legacy being the main poison of our soul, but also of the cage of dualism that hold us in centurial imprisonment of clashes and hatred.