Socrates states during his apology, after an engaging conversation with a reputed wise man, "I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know." In saying this, he stated that he did not know anything, while the other man saying he did, clearly showed that Socrates was in small way wiser because he was not ignorant to the fact that he did not know anything while the other man was. With this, Socrates destroys the reputation of a credited wise man, and in doing so, destroys a part of his own reputation while exposing the truth. A predicament is then presented to Socrates, either destroy his own reputation to seek the truth the Delphi foretold or to stop and forever wonder. Socrates was not satisfied with not knowing more and more about the oracle's vision, so he decided to speak with the great poets, at the risk of devaluing his reputation even more, of the city-state in hopes they could challenge his wisdom. Socrates very early soon discovers that most of them were written not with structure but inspirational talent. Socrates explains that the poets "thought themselves very wise men in other respects, which they were not." This again was seen as a distinct advantage over the poets and further thrashed Socrates" reputation. After examining men with so-called established reputations in Athens, Socrates was saddened to discover that not one of these men possessed wisdom greater than he. That of course did not stop him from discoursing with other citizens that were deemed wise. .
Socrates went to visit the less reputed craftsmen and was delighted to find that they did possess knowledge not known to him, but there was a fatal flaw: Socrates discerned that "each of them, because of his success at his craft, thought himself very wise in other most important pursuits, and this error of theirs overshadowed the wisdom they had.
