At 20d-e, Socrates makes a claim that causes a disturbance in the court: "I got this name through nothing but a kind of wisdom." Socrates' 'a kind of' is not a verbal tic -- it marks the need for differentiation. And he goes on to differentiate his kind of wisdom. "What kind? The kind which is perhaps peculiarly human, for it may be I am really wise in that." Socrates goes on to suggest that perhaps his accusers have a wisdom greater than human -- but he leaves that a mere suggestion.
Socrates' story of the Delphic Oracle unspools more of what he has in mind when he differentiates human and greater-than-human -- call it divine -- wisdom. But I want you to pause, before he tells that story, and ask why what Socrates says causes a disturbance. What vulnerability in his audience has Socrates exposed here?
Much of what happens in The Apology rotates around this passage.
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