It started, he said, when the Oracle of Delphi declared that there was no one in Athens who was wiser than Socrates. “What can the god be saying? It’s a riddle: what can it mean?” Socrates asked himself. “I’ve no knowledge of my being wise in any respect, great or small.” Socrates’s solution was to wander the city, seeking out the most respected politicians, poets, and artisans to prove the oracle wrong—but each time, he was disappointed. “Because they were accomplished in practising their skill, each one of them claimed to be wisest about other things too: the most important ones at that—and
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