Comparing Gilgamesh, Rig Veda And The Upanishad

During the axial age, “human self-understanding in major cultures around the world underwent transformations so dramatic that they constituted the most important turning-point (axis) in human history” (The search for Self- Understanding). As civilization took over in many parts of the world, people began questioning the way they lived their lives and began looking for an answer. Different pieces of literature and scripts such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Rig Veda and the Upanishads were written as an answer and also religious texts. These scripts helped the people set up a way of life they want to live and also helped them understand themselves. As they continued to do so, people began to question the definition of wisdom. This question caused …show more content…
While talking to these people, he realized that the answer they give him back after he asks a question was not satisfying to him. He learned that they all don’t know how to say they don’t know and so, Socrates concluded that none of them were wise as they claim to be. While he was getting back to his place, he thought to himself “I am wiser than this man: neither of us knows anything that is really worth knowing, but he thinks that he has knowledge when he has not, while I, having no knowledge, do not think that I have. I seem, at any rate to be a little wiser than he is on this point. His most famous line however “I do not think that I know what I do not now.” (Plato 26), is where he makes his point that he is indeed wiser than others who claim to be one because in his own definition, wisdom is “knowing that you don’t know.” For Socrates knowing that one has a weakness and that he/she know that they don’t know everything is what makes the person wise. Wisdom for him is the ability to say they don’t know and this is undeniably true because as a human, we all have one nature that makes us similar and that is our desire to know more or our tendency to wonder. As Plato said, wonder is definitely the beginning of philosophy and so, by asking and wondering first, we tend to find a solution or an answer. Although the want and need to know more is there, there just isn’t enough information to accumulate all knowledge and so, one has to be humble and know that there is more to the world that he /She doesn’t know yet. Overall, Socrates as he claims to be was wise because he understood he was no superior to others with knowledge. Unlike others, he believed he didn’t know everything and had more to learn. The very first step to being wise