I
It turns out that what the Delphic oracle said about Socrates varies by the account given for how Socrates defended himself at his trial for impiety and corrupting the young.
Plato’s famous version has Socrates’ recounting that the oracle pronounced no human being wiser than Socrates. Socrates then goes on to ask, Aren’t there others in fact wiser? In the process, he seeks to underscore his knowledge of his own ignorance.
In contrast, Xenophon (a contemporary of Socrates and Plato) has Socrates saying the Delphic oracle pronounced no one freer, more just, or more prudent than Socrates. Socrates then proceeds by asking and answering nine questions which are meant to lead to that conclusion.
II
For my part, I like the updated composite version: wise enough to disagree, free enough to agree.
Socrates being wise is entailed in Xenophon’s version, whereas being wise in Plato’s version also means knowing you’re ignorant of things, including: prudently put, just how free am I?
III
Not quite, then, the ethics of “Do unto others as you would do unto them.”
Closer instead to: “I am not so arrogant, as to commend mine owne gifts, neither so degenerate, as to beg your toleration” (Robert Jones, 1611).
Source: P.A. Vander Waerdt (1993). “Socratic Justice and Self-Sufficiency. The Story of the Delphic Oracle in Xenophon’s Apology of Socrates”. In: Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 11. 1-48.
WHEN COMPLEX IS AS SIMPLE AS IT GETS 