Am I full of shit? – If you think you’re right about something, find someone to challenge you. You’ll see if you’re actually on to something, or just full of it [+ how Socrates approached this]

In Plato’s Theaetetus, Thedourus and Socrates debate what it is to ‘know’ or ‘perceive’ something. And Socrates being the annoying (but excellently annoying) bloke he was, badgers Theaetetus about what they believe knowledge actually is. Theodorus’ viewpoint gets stripped bare by Socrates to the point where everything he thought he knew is put into question. He starts to get pissed off about it and then compares Socrates to a cross between a brutal, cunning gangster called Sciron and this homie called Antaeus, who’d wrestle anyone who passed by to death.

Socrates replies:
Yes, that’s a first-rate analogy for my affliction, Theodorus. But I’m harder to shake off than Sciron or Antaeus. I’ve come across tens of thousands of powerful speakers in my time, veritable Heracles and Theseuses, and they’ve given me a thoroughly good thrashing, but even so I’m still no more likely to stand back, so extraordinarily deep is the passion in me for working out on these subjects. So no, don’t you begrudge me a bout with you, either; it’ll do you good as well as me.

Even if you think you’ve worked out a bunch of stuff in your life, views on how to live and how to be happy, stop and think, maybe I’m full of shit. If someone challenges you, embrace it. Listen and see if their view has merit, it’s the best way to see if your does too.