Two Kinds of Knowledge

Most people, asked what knowledge is, would treat it as one big pile of facts. Socrates broke that pile into layers. Some knowledge is barely worth the name. Some is useful but limited. Only one kind is the knowledge a human life can actually rest on. The layers, and the link he drew between knowing and being good, are the heart of his theory of education.

Three layers in the theory of value

Socrates believed knowledge and skills came in two visible types, with a third invisible type sitting above them.

Trivial knowledge is the first layer. The word trivial means unimportant. Almost everyone in Athens already had this kind. Names of streets, prices of bread, who was sleeping with whom. Information of a kind. Not a basis for a life.

Important knowledge is the second layer. This is the knowledge held by craftsmen: the carpenter who knows wood, the doctor who knows the body, the soldier who knows arms. It is more useful than trivial knowledge. It supports a person’s role in society. But it still does not answer the deepest question: how to live the life one has been given.

Ultimate knowledge sits above both. It is the knowledge of how to live well as a human being. Socrates thought most people lived in shameful ignorance of this third layer, even when they were skilled in their craft. The carpenter who could build a roof had no idea what made a life worth building.

He also said the most valuable knowledge would vary from person to person. The teacher’s ultimate knowledge is not the same as the doctor’s or the farmer’s. Each individual has to find the wisdom that fits their life.

Flashcard

What are the three layers in Socrates' theory of value?

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Answer

Trivial, important, ultimate

1. Trivial: unimportant information almost everyone has.

2. Important: skills and crafts held by craftsmen.

3. Ultimate: how to live a human life well.

Two kinds in the theory of knowledge

Inside the third layer, Socrates drew another line. He separated ordinary knowledge from definitional or higher knowledge.

Ordinary knowledge is specific information. A person can know that water boils, that the sun rises in the east, that bread costs a coin. None of this gives the person any real expertise or wisdom. It is a list of facts.

Definitional or higher knowledge is different. It is the knowledge that comes from defining words and concepts: not knowing that a thing is, but knowing what it is. What is justice? What is courage? What is piety? A person who can give a careful definition of justice, defend the definition against objections, and reach a definition that holds up under scrutiny, has higher knowledge.

This kind of knowledge depends on logic. It uses the techniques of careful argument to test beliefs about what gods are good, what acts are just, what kinds of life are worth living. Socrates was clear that the wisdom of the gods themselves was best understood through human logic and natural scepticism, not through unexamined tradition.

Flashcard

What is the difference between ordinary and definitional knowledge?

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Answer

Specific information vs careful definition

Ordinary knowledge is a list of facts. Definitional or higher knowledge is the careful definition of words and concepts: what is justice, what is courage, what is piety. Definitional knowledge depends on logic.

Discovering the truth, and evil from ignorance

Socrates believed something a modern teacher would call striking. He believed that a person who genuinely discovers the truth and sees the goodness in it will live accordingly. The truth, once really seen, is not something a person can ignore.

The flip side of this belief is one of his most famous claims:

Evil only comes from ignorance.

There is no such thing, in his view, as a person who clearly sees that an act is wrong and chooses it anyway. People do wrong because they are mistaken about what is good. The drunkard does not really know that his pleasure costs him his health. The thief does not really know that his gain costs him his soul. They are ignorant in the technical sense: they have not seen the situation clearly.

The implication for education is direct. If evil comes from ignorance, then the cure for moral failure is not punishment. It is learning. A society that wants better citizens does not need harsher laws; it needs better teachers.

Flashcard

What did Socrates say is the source of all evil?

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Answer

Ignorance

A person who really sees what is right will not choose wrong. People do wrong because they have not seen clearly. The cure for moral failure, on this view, is learning rather than punishment.

Knowledge and virtue

Out of all this comes one tight Socratic line: knowledge and virtue are closely related; with true knowledge comes virtue.

Knowing in the highest sense is not a separate activity from living well. To know what justice really is, in the Socratic sense, is already to be partly just. To know what courage really is, is already to be partly courageous. The reverse is also true: a person who acts unjustly proves that their knowledge of justice was shallow.

This binds the teacher’s job to the moral life of the student in a way many modern teachers shy away from. A Socratic teacher cannot say “I taught the content; what they do with it is not my concern.” If the student goes on to act badly, the teacher’s content did not really land. Real teaching, on this view, changes how a person lives.

Flashcard

What is the link between knowledge and virtue in Socrates?

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Answer

With true knowledge comes virtue

To really know justice is to be partly just. To really know courage is to be partly courageous. A student who learns and then acts badly did not really learn. The teacher’s job is therefore tied to the student’s life, not just their answers.