What do you know? Can you detail everything that you actually know? Do you have an inventory in your brain? But then, what would qualify as knowledge? Do we limit it to things we’ve learned in school? Do we include that knowledge that only comes with experience? Or is it more holistic?

Epistemology, or the study of knowledge and how it is acquired, is often said to have started with Socrates, whose life work was depicted most famously in Plato’s The Republic. Plato, a devout student of Socrates, took notes from the great philosopher and turned them into a whole body of work, mostly produced as dialogues, like a very thoughtful play.

Socrates is considered the founder of Western philosophy as a whole. Unlike those before him, he was public and annoying in his approach. Instead of chilling in a lyceum and keeping his ideas with students, Socrates went onto the streets and questioned pretty much everyone he encountered.

Socrates got so annoying, unfortunately, that Athens thought of him not only as a troll but also a threat to society, who was corrupting the youth with his blasphemous questioning (referred to now as the Socratic Method). The higher ups, irritated with this old guy running around and getting people to think, thought he was doing a disservice to the touted gods, and so the governing authority put him on trial.

In the Apology, Socrates has his day in court, and it ain’t no Law & Order episode. Speaking for himself, Socrates tells the court that he is just a curious dude. And that is where the knowing nothing comes in.

In this final dialogue, Socrates freely admits to not being the smartest bro in the land. He talks about how he likes to visit with artisans and others to pull from their wealth of knowledge as craftsmen. He then makes the statement that “the unexamined life is worth living,” and that if there is anything he knows, it’s that he knows nothing.

But what does this really mean? And what does it mean in terms of epistemology? How do we acquire knowledge as human beings, and what really is knowledge?

For Socrates, in his questioning, he was not simply one upping others. He was not trolling dudes in the Agora for funzies. The Socratic Method was a learning opportunity for the philosopher as well.

And in years of having questioned people’s basic belief systems, he came to the realization that, no matter how wise a dude people thought he was, he really knew nothing in the grand scheme of things. That years of such questioning and teaching turned to this rather humble statement really speaks about the power of philosophy if we take it seriously.

Unfortunately, though Socrates made one last compelling argument for himself and philosophy, the court did not find it amusing. Socrates was sentenced to execute himself by drinking a poison made out of hemlock. Though his followers were understandably upset, he took the punishment with equanimity, shrugging and taking the cup in his hands.