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The phrase Socratic paradox can refer to two separate things. The more common usage refers to an object or idea whose very existence, or acknowledgment, is a paradox. Its name is derived from a quote of Socrates from the Republic, where he says, "I know nothing at all."[1] The question arises, then, is how he knows that he knows nothing, if this is the only information he possesses. A more well-known Socratic paradox would be the phrase, "this sentence is false."
The secondary usage refers to statements of Socrates that seem contrary to common sense, such as that "no one desires evil."[2]
References
- ^ Plato, the Republic. Book I.
- ^ p. 14, Terence Irwin, The Development of Ethics, vol. 1, Oxford University Press 2007; p. 147, Gerasimos Santas, "The Socratic Paradoxes", Philosophical Review 73 (1964), pp. 147-64.
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