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Oracle: No man is wiser than Socrates. (IP3 12b)
Socrates tries to prove the oracle wrong.
Perhaps Socrates intends to show the oracle (which he believed to be divine) to be right ("vindicate" (IP3 13b)) by trying hard to prove it wrong (by finding a counterexample) and failing?
Socrates' initial interpretation:
"I am the wisest of men." (IP3 12b)Another interpretation of oracle:
No person is wise (not that Socrates is wiser than others).Socrates seems to accept this. "[B]y his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only using my name by way of illustration ..." (IP3 13b)
A feminist interpretation:
Only women are wise!
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