a footnote to Socrates

How can you say we don't have ethical knowledge?
Easy.
Take the last time you made what you flatter yourself with calling the "right" or "good" decision.
The consequences surprised you, and there were very many unanticipated consequences.
Don't our friends surprise us by their kindness and cleverness?


Ah, but I was smart enough to choose the right friends.


Sometimes....


Another argument:
Judgments of good and bad, happiness, satisfaction are inevitably comparative, and our minds are warped by what we see around us (i.e., the limited share of happiness that we have), so that our judgments are slanted.  Do we even know what we are aiming at?  A better life than our neighbor's?----but that "better" life might not be good.


Another argument:


It's easier to say "He/she/NN did wrong" than it is to choose wisely one's self....


Ahhh, this is all too schematic.  Not fully developed.   Not proper argumentation at all...... Yet, in broad outline, I think it's all true...
We are very ignorant, and very much in denial.....



(In fact, your denial is deeper than I've said so far.... Your achievements, such as they are,
have as much to do with your starting point-----your location in the socio-economic order, or the ant-colony of humanity, who your parents were, what they knew, and their resources-----more to do with all that, than it does with your individual self-generated effort.....But we ignore all of that due to our insane individualism.....a piece of ideology which distracts us from seeing our real situation, the real injustice which exists....)