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Comment by UIUC_06 | Hacker News Reader

Funny, just a couple weeks ago a friend recommended Gore Vidal's historical novel Creation, where the author is a grandson of Zoroaster. He manages to meet Socrates, the Buddha, and Confucius, which was actually possible at a certain point.

(I don't like Vidal's writing, which I find to be mostly attitude, but YMMV.)

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I would bet Socrates is the strangest in that bunch, since he claims to possess no knowledge (episteme) at all. At one point, he says he is therefore the wisest of all, even though he sees wisdom (sophos) as something that humans can only strive towards and never truly attain.

I think you mean sophia; sophos is the adjective meaning 'wise'.

I think Socrates is only known from Plato's writing and possibly a rhethorical device.

I'm only interested in the origin and meaning of the sokratic paradox and am hopeful that it has a prehistory. Did you know that οὐκ, which may be translated as "not", is composed of (un-) + ever + what (a pattern also seen in Maltesen for negation), so one of the associated quotes could be read as "I know ever-what knowing". English and German wikipedia present this slightly differently, it is confusing. See wiktionary yourself for the alleged etymology https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BF%E1%BD%90%CE%BA

Socrates is known from multiple sources, the most famous which aside from Plato is probably Xenophon.

I was motivated to read it (who wouldn't be?), but I do find Vidal's writing off-puttingly snarky.

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