Retrospection And Purposeful Analysis

In this essay, I aim to prove that Socrates’s committed just act by examine surrendering his life. To do this, I will examine the arguments made by Plato to convince Socrates to escape from prison, as well as evaluating Socrates’s arguments against escaping from prison, while arguing that Socrates’s arguments were stronger. I will start by examining Plato’s arguments, and then move into Socrates’s arguments, while pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of both. I will touch on all of Socrates’s main arguments, however I will focus mainly on his argument that committing unjust actions can be harmful to one’s soul, and that having a ruined soul would render life not worth living.

In this post it is my goal to analyze Plato’s The Apology showing that Socrates statement of “an unexamined life is not worth living” stands as Socrates statement of his own worth, wisdom, and place in Athenian society.

Learning from failure is important to having a successful life. You have to figure out what works and what does not which requires some trial and error. Many famous entrepreneurs who have a successful career have experienced many failures in their lifetime. An example of

Failures are important, but learning from them is

A successful person reflects his ability to take his failure and transform that failure into a success by learning from his mistakes. The relation between failure and success constantly changes because the minimal line of success becomes narrower the more a person diligently works towards success, but failure still provides the best way to learn and to reach those higher limits of success. Richard Brooks, a director, explained to Zinsser, about his movie Lord Jim, “that he learned more about his craft from this considerable failure than from his many earlier hits” (Zinsser, 2014, p. 2). Failure teaches people their mistakes, and only those who have true failure will learn from those mistakes and succeed because failure provides the best lessons to

The claim that “nothing terrible will happen to you as long as you really are a good and moral person, training yourself in the exercise of virtue” [527d] is one that raises questions of both truth and meaning. In order to answer these questions, one must first understand the claim itself. The audience must come to understand the context in which Socrates makes the claim. First, then, one must attempt to look at the world through the eyes of Socrates. In doing so, one finds that Socrates feels that, if justly distributed, punishment is beneficial overall.

“Is the unexamined life worth living?” (The Apology, 2016, para. 48). This question has been asked by people since the time of Socrates. Many people delve into the quandary of this question seeking a greater understanding of their purpose. Often times, people live on the surface and never truly strive for self-examination, whereas others believe it is crucial to deeply examine one’s true self. Every life is worth living. However, the difference between simply existing in an unexamined life versus living life as God intended is momentous. An examined life is lived for the benefit of others more than oneself. Socrates’ question has revealed several different truths, including the value of self-examination, the importance

When I look at the word failure I didn’t see success. But that slowly changed as I read the book What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain Chapter four. Bain, for me and I’m sure many other, have changed our view point on failure being a bad thing. He instead expressed failure as an “opportunity to learn something.” (121) As infants we grow and develop, we learn to walk by falling down a couple hundred times, and we learn to speak by babbling. By trying to walk, and trying to talk, we may fail at first. As an infant, you cannot give up when you are face to face with failure. You must get up and try again to learn. In the book, What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain he uses people’s experiences and research to explain why failure is an opportunity to learn something new, rather than seeing failure as something bad. He asserts “people who become highly creative and productive learn to acknowledge failures, even to embrace them, and to explore and learn from them.” (100) Failure is important. If we did not get up and try again as infants, we would not be where we are today.

Failure for some, is one of the hardest things to come back from. When you do not succeed at something the first time around, you can develop false hope that you wont ever be able to accomplish that same goal, ever again. But it should be seen as the complete opposite. The effect of failing at a particular thing should give you even more drive and want to, achieve it. It shouldn't knock you down, but aspire you to be stronger and want what you are striving for, even more than you did before. I have gone through very many experiences where I have not received the outcome that I thought I deserved or wanted and I have felt like quitting. Knowing now that I didn't quit, makes the success of that one goal, that much better.

A philosophical attitude toward life should play a major part in our lives. It is crucial for us as humans to learn and accept lessons learned through the experience of life. If you do not “examine your life” then what do you learn and what do you gain? Socrates’ in “The Trial and Death of Socrates” he details this in many ways. We can pull all the evidence and ideas we need from this text written by Plato. In the 3 parts Euthyphro, Apology and Crito many conclusions are made and there is much to learn from this text. Some of the most important parts allude to this idea of living life with a philosophical attitude. The book begins with the search for the definition of piety. In the apology Socrates’ details his side of the argument showing everyone the power of his own ideas and that is proved by his execution and finally in the Crito his commitment to his way of life is the last point that Socrates’ made. This text is chalked full of life lessons but the most important is the one that urges people to live their lives while never stopping to learn and think.

Human behaviour is governed through habits. We tend to fall into habits of doing things in a certain way, or thinking in a certain way. As a result, every individual has their own particular way of perceiving their natural and social surroundings, which is based on their knowledge and understanding. On this perception and craving to have a deeper understanding, individuals try to seek logical reasoning through questioning. Answers to these questions may not be same for all but none of the answers are incorrect.

The word “failure”, by definition, is the condition of not achieving the desired end or ends. However, this standard definition does not come close to summing up the countless other meanings of failure. Every person, regardless of status, color, or sex, has had to deal with this issue at least once in their lifetime. Even so, each person’s definition of it can vary depending on their personal experiences. The interpretations of failure may differ, but failure itself involves not putting forth effort, being a disappointment, or not succeeding in a task.

Traditionally, failure is seen as a negative concept and is defined as lacking success. I, on the other hand, try to put a positive spin on everything in life. I see failure as an obstacle that is experienced by all, but it does not define an individual. Failure in essence will force an individual to be more receptive to their surroundings and actions and also will force an individual to mature. Looking back on my childhood years I can now pinpoint the areas where I failed and I can confidently say that I have grown and prospered due to those failures. The three major failures I have experienced were my attention deficit issues which affected my ability to succeed in school, my anti-social habit that I let consume my early years, and my

Socrates was considered by many to be the wisest man in ancient Greece. While he was eventually condemned for his wisdom, his spoken words are still listened to and followed today. When, during his trial, Socrates stated that, “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 45), people began to question his theory. They began to wonder what Socrates meant with his statement, why he would feel that a life would not be worth living. To them, life was above all else, and choosing to give up life would be out of the picture. They did not understand how one would choose not to live life just because he would be unable to examine it.

Perhaps the most important of messages I took away from Socrates The Apology, is the notion of