Paper Example. Self-Knowledge in Plato's Alcibiades I

Self-knowledge refers to the idea of having full knowledge/understanding of personality and motives. Socrates presents this idea throughout "Alcibiades I. Socrates primarily focuses on assisting Alcibiades to understand the unpreparedness to face the political field in the future through his ambiguity of what justice entails or implies (Plato, 2001). The realization of lack of self-knowledge plays a significant role in allowing Alcibiades to understand that he also does not know finally. Alcibiades submits himself to the teachings of Socrates as a way of ensuring that he significantly understands himself and achieves the aspects of self-knowledge. This paper discusses self-knowledge from Socrates' perspective and the importance of understanding individual personality and goals. The article discusses the fundamental prerequisites that play a critical role in promoting the ideology of self-knowledge as presented by Socrates from a reflection point.

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The Starting Point

Socrates starts by presenting a discussion between him and Alcibiades, who was preparing to join the world of politics in the future. Socrates begins by questioning the element of making a good leader (Plato, 2001). Socrates asks about Alcibiades' chances of standing out as an excellent leader when he joins politics and gets his opportunity in the Assembly. The idea of self-knowledge starts by developing a culture of being a terrific advisor, and a good leader must have robust knowledge beyond others' experience. The fundamental step towards understanding the primary requirements of a successful career in different fields starts by evaluating the personal level of advisory intelligence. The evaluation is followed by an understanding of how intelligence works in making a good advisor. In Alcibiades' context, Socrates questions his ability to make a good advisor. After he realizes the confidence in Alcibiades' answer, Socrates shifts the focus to the element of understanding what the career of choice requires.

In ensuring that Alcibiades understands what politics as a career requires, Socrates highlights the aspects of war and peace (Plato, 2001). Socrates tries to inquire how Alcibiades will talk or respond to war and peace issues when they are talked about in the Assembly. Alcibiades provides a personal answer that shows an intimate understanding of the different problems revolve around war and peace (Plato, 2001). The essential point that Socrates is communicating through his questions to Alcibiades thinks that you know something and knowing it are two specific things. Knowing something starts by learning its nature and understanding how the works against the unjust. An individual's knowledge enhances the actual context of the nature of peace and war. The experience develops because of different factors that provide comprehensive information, therefore, creating an individual into an informed adviser.

Knowing something concerning an issue comes through learning. When people do not remember how they acquired the knowledge, it is only ethical that they give credit to the people they feel might have helped them develop the understanding. In Alcibiades cases, he points out that he understood what just versus unjust implied (Plato, 2001). Still, Alcibiades could not remember how he came to understand the difference between the two distinctive aspects. Alcibiades feels that it is only appropriate for him to give credit to the people that played an essential role in teaching him the Greek Language (Plato, 2001). The process of proving basic personal knowledge concerning a particular issue through a language that an individual understands does not mean that they have achieved the notion of self-knowledge. Socrates brings out this point clearly by starting a debate with Alcibiades. Socrates insists that Alcibiades still understand the just and unjust distinction by arguing because knowing the Greek Language is not logical. Socrates further says that learning the Greek Language is like understanding the difference between a tone and a stick, which is a difference that anyone can point out (Plato, 2001). Through the debates, Socrates aims at helping Alcibiades have a close examination of his self-knowledge by using personal doubts. Furthermore, Socrates wants Alcibiades to understand and accept that he is steel, not a good leader because he does not know concerning justice as he starts that justice only comes through "the gods" (Plato, 2001).

The argument that Socrates presents above implies self-knowledge is also achieved when one recognizes and accepts that he does not know the issue explained to him/her. After accommodating personal weakness, an individual must strive to seek appropriate support from a person with enough knowledge concerning what they think they know but do not know in reality. On the other, it is critical to note that as we strive to discover ourselves and the level of knowledge that we possess concerning specific issues, those with advanced experience concerning the matter will question what we know and what we do not know. The questioning only aims at helping as have an open mind, which is a primary step towards self-knowledge. After realizing that he does not have enough knowledge concerning what justice entails after being questioned by Socrates, Alcibiades focuses on improving his experience on what justice means by relying on assistance from Socrates.

By accepting that your knowledge is weak, you stop allowing ignorance to control and open your mind to essential ideas from people who possess the appropriate expertise to go through the steps of knowing what you did not know. Alcibiades emphasizes this statement because after becoming aware that he has no sufficient knowledge about what justice implies and entails, he shades off his ignorance and believes that he already had the adequate experience to make him an excellent leader. Such realization plays a significant role in bringing an individual closer to achieve the aspect understating him/herself, and this element is the foundation of self-knowledge. Only by accepting the ignorance that a person has and letting it go can learn the reality. Alcibiades realized that he lacked knowledge concerning what justice entails and where it comes then accepted the teaching and the help Socrates was providing to him.

Accepting to get sufficient knowledge support from a person who has adequate knowledge provides an opportunity for an individual to move to another step towards achieving self-knowledge. Buying personal ignorance allows those willing to help us possess the ability to start taking us through the learning process. On the other hand, allowing ignorance to drive essential aspects of a person makes it challenging for them to look at things from a logical and critical perspective. Letting go of ignorance also creates the ideology of caring for oneself (personal care).

Socrates introduces the aspect of care of oneself by posing questions specific but essential questions that include, "What is it to take care of oneself lest we without noticing. He further states it is perhaps not caring for ourselves when we think we are, and when is that one does this? When one takes care of things that belong to him, do they then also take care of their issues?" in answering these questions and providing a detailed explanation of their meaning (Plato, 2001). Socrates adopts several analogies. Taking care of oneself starts by taking care of the specific things around and making the environment conducive. Socrates provides an example of taking care of the feet by taking care of the shoes (Plato, 2001). Socrates emphasizes that the ideology of self-stating that the art we possess does not make things better if it is not used to make things better. The statement creates a critical idea of the power skills we have, but we are not using. Having a gift and not using it does not make the skill necessary under any circumstance. What we do with the skills we possess plays a crucial role in making things better. It is one of the fundamental ways of promoting and achieving the aspect of self-care. Socrates's argument implies that self-knowledge grows through the culture of self-care, and self-care develops through the measure we take to make things better in our environment. The measurements are taken and achieved using the art/skills that one possesses. However, it is also essential to note that caring for oneself is different from caring for you what you own and caring for the body.

The ideas that Socrates points out when talking about self-care imply that when thinking that you know something, and is like taking care of the body and your possession. In this case, the control means the ignorance that might block you from knowing the truth the shallow knowledge you think you have. Taking care of self implies focusing on the soul and not the body or possessions. Self-knowledge is also regarded as self-discovery emphasizes the importance of soul-searching as defined from religion and an emotional perspective. In highlighting these aspects, Socrates states, "So he who commands that one know oneself bids us know our souls." (Plato, 2001). This emphasis implies that Alcibiades did not understand his soul when Socrates started talking to time. Alcibiades was willing to get the best understanding of what Socrates was talking about and accepted Socrates' teachings and accepted to become Socrates' student. He allowed Socrates to question his knowledge of specific issues, which included the critical problem of justice. Although some might think that the teaching we receive from people helps us achieve self-knowledge, some professional teachers cannot teach self-knowledge.

Guiding Principles to Self-Knowledge

The primary guiding principle to the achievement of self-knowledge is avoiding hypocrisy. Hypocrisy refers to the aspect of saying one thing then turning your attention to another. Hypocrisy makes it hard for people to understand what they want for themselves. It is a culture that promotes the elements of mistrusts, ignorance, and sometimes arrogance. Hypocrisy is also an obstacle to realizing love and wisdom because it plays an essential role in promoting the culture of dishonesty and ignorance. However, the environment might provide the necessary help and resources to encourage their need to achieve self-knowledge. The virtue of hypocrisy turns the world against such an individual and denies him/her the necessary resources to help achieve self-care. Socrates believes that a hypocrite is not just an enemy of the world of truth and critical evaluation of knowledge that comes from others, but an enemy to his mind and soul.

The hypocritical virtue makes it hard for such a person to open his mind or approach issues with an open. A hypocrite only thinks about the immediate feeling and impact of what they are talking about rather than considering the future consequences and how they affect their urge to achieve self-knowledge. Furthermore, being a hypocrite only opens doors for misjudgment and conclusions about particular factors that promote the desire to achieve self-knowledge. When one develops such a significantly negative virtue, it becomes challenging for those that can provide appropriate knowledge to trust him/her with information concerning particular issues. The rationality of achieving self-knowledge and opening the mind relies on standing for what people say and supporting it as much as they believe their knowledge can help what they are saying. After standing for what an individual thinks and keeping it, the next essential step is to allow the mind to learn more and share more.