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How to understand Socrates’ “know thyself”?

Many times, when there is a forest in front of you and you only have one chance to choose, you must think twice.

“A thousand birds in the forest is worse than a bird in the hand.” This is a famous saying said by the great philosopher Socrates to his students. Life is actually all kinds of choices and giving up. When we are young, we are full of energy. There are countless temptations, countless opportunities to choose and countless roads in front of us. Just as we are facing That lush forest.

After thinking about it, when I finally walked to the tree in the photo, I had actually made the decision to give up on other options. There is only this tree in my eyes and this tree in my heart. That forest no longer belongs to me.

Socrates’ Thoughts

Starting from the Sophists, ancient Greek philosophy changed from focusing on the study of nature itself to focusing on the study of social ethics and people. But they only stay at the perceptual stage and can only draw relativistic conclusions. It was not until Socrates that this situation fundamentally changed. Socrates demanded a "turn of the soul", turning philosophy from the study of nature to the study of self, which is what people later called it, pulling philosophy back from heaven to earth. He believes that the pursuit of natural truth is endless;

I feel that the world is constantly changing, so the knowledge gained is also uncertain. Socrates wants to pursue an unchanging, certain, and eternal truth. Therefore, he cannot look to the natural outside world, but must return to himself and study himself. His famous quote is know yourself. Starting from Socrates, self and nature are clearly distinguished; man is no longer just a part of nature, but another unique entity different from nature.