Socrates And Unexamined Life

“The unexamined life is not worth living,” states socrates. Socrates means that people who do not examine their lives, who don’t think about what they want to do with their lives, don’t live a happy life. Jimmy Santiago Baca and Frederick Douglas relate to socrates because they also lived their lives like him. Socrates educated people on the need to examine life and decide how to live it.

Socrates put one’s quest for wisdom and the instruction of others above everything else in life. A simple man both in the way he talked and the wealth he owned, he believed that simplicity in whatever one did was the best way of acquiring knowledge and passing it unto others. He is famous for saying that “the unexplained life is not worth living.” He endeavored therefore to break down the arguments of those who talked with a flowery language and boasted of being experts in given subjects (Rhees 30). His aim was to show that the person making a claim on wisdom and knowledge was in fact a confused one whose clarity about a given subject was far from what they claimed. Socrates, in all his simplicity never advanced any theories of his own

In the words attributed to Socrates in Plato’s Apology, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” David Foster Wallace expands on this idea in his “Kenyon College 2005 Commencement Address,” pointing out the importance of awareness and escaping the natural, default-setting of an unconscious, self-centred life. While commencement speeches are typically epideictic—celebratory—in nature, Wallace takes a deliberative rhetorical stance. According to Fahnestock, deliberative discourse is used in order to persuade in “the best possible course of future action” (1998, p. 333). Abizadeh argues that character and emotion are “constitutive features of deliberation,” and that deliberation cannot be “reduced to logical demonstration” (2002, p.

Socrates states that “the unexamined life is not worth living”, which means that the life without inquiry is incomplete. He mentions that he is accused of being examining others and proving their ignorance. He talks about that people live in the unexamined life, For example, Socrates comes to the politician, the poet and the handicraftsman in order to find someone who is wiser than him, but he find out they are ignorant. They do not care about the world around them but they pretend to have knowledge. In fact, those people have no pursuit in knowledge

What Socrates witnessed in the Athenian civilization may be the most influential motivation for his ideas on the meaning of life. As noted, Socrates observed the downfall of some cultural aspects in his home city, but he also noticed the presence of a strong intellectual life that withstood this downfall. From his interpretation of this aspect, Socrates states

Socrates advocated for himself that he just did everything he thought good, right to men of Athens. He tried to demonstrate that he was not wisest man in Athens; that people thought they know something when they do not know. Today, instead of that, people try to get another way to get what they want; don’t care about conscience. Socrates also thought he had an ethical obligation to live with philosophy life and exhorting people to care for the perfection of soul. He did his mission over and over time; because he believed that his obligation; that he owed a duty to the truth.

There is not a clear way to say if Socrates was right or wrong in his statement, but in my opinion he was a brave man. His statement “An unexamined life is not worth living” is something everyone should live

What Socrates is implying is that if one decides not to discover themselves and tries to concentrate more on the material interest and the pursuit of personal gain, one is capable of abusing this power to an extent where it may wreak chaos and the possible destruction of those around them, either disregarding them emotionally or physically and all due to the decision, that initially they were not taken into consideration before the decision. Socrates mentions that one has the wisdom to accomplish anything in one's personal life, but one should seek out ourselves and find our wisdom that one has inside the mind before one tries to reach personal goals in

Nevertheless the impact Socrates had on the Greek culture in 440 BC continues to live on through our twenty-first century. Many great leaders and superior figures use Socrates’s theory as an example for their own morals, ethics and behaviors. He defied the norm of society by questioning authorities and challenged the customs and values preeminent of society. So before we raise the question of what is typical, common, usual or otherwise what is deemed normal, I present with a final quote from Socrates: “To find yourself, think for

but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy…” (Plato 12). Socrates’s point is that the he will continue to stay firm in believing his own personal convictions and dogmas which derived from his own mind, rather than succeeding to the government's will and listening to the single voice of the majority. Socrates explains further that knowledge is the truth and he will continue to pursue the truth so as not to allow the truth to become stagnant and overused as it would be if he did not question his life further. Socrates exemplifies the model of self-reliance through his decision to not only disregard the notions of society but also in his decision to believe his own ideas and conceptions of what the truth is. Socrates relies purely on his own personal thoughts. This concept is important because so often humankind ignores that feeling or conviction deep within themselves. Emerson and Socrates both strongly argue that in order to fully comprehend what truth and knowledge are, you absolutely must fully commit yourself to the beliefs within you. Self-reliance not only allows for a deeper connection with the truth and knowledge, but also allows humankind to increase critical examinations of current positions in

When studying Socrates, you the reader must come up with your point of view and take what Socrates is trying to teach into your own approach. You must also think why Socrates choose the words he choose. Socrates ' careful choice of words give much color to his quote, “an unexamined life is no life for a human being to live.” The word "examined" for example has many definitions, including: to observe or inspect carefully or critically; to study or analyze; to check the health or condition of something or someone; to inquire into; et cetera. We could imagine that Socrates would insist that asking other people what the quote means goes against its very nature. By suggesting this, Socrates gives praise to questions such as, "Is there more to reality than that which we can see and touch?" Socrates also asks, "Am I living my life according to my own rules, or the rules set for me by others?" Socrates believed that the purpose of human life was personal and spiritual growth. We are unable to grow toward greater understanding of our true nature unless we take the time to examine and reflect upon our life. As another philosopher, Santayana, observed, "He who does not remember the past is condemned to repeat it."

Socrates was one of the greatest philosophers of all time who questioned many individuals about their beliefs on ideas and thoughts that they take for granted by feeling that they know knowledge on a particular subject but utterly find out that they obtain no knowledge or wisdom on that subject that they felt so strongly about, which in turn, ended up being embarrassing to that individual. However Socrates feels that if he did not live and examined his life would have been pointless because he would not have learned of all the knowledge he did. Socrates was not like every other citizen in his time who did not examine life and world around him; he would explore his mind and find knowledge of the ideas, thoughts, and values in his time

Socrates did not invent philosophy. There were several intellectuals and schools of thought before him that began the work of questioning the nature of life, fate, free will, the gods and human duty. However, it was Socrates who shifted the focus of philosophical inquiry from the natural world to the examination of man himself, which proved to be an remarkable advance, forever changing the purpose of philosophy. Therefore, it is noteworthy to identify the Presocratic Greek philosophers who have helped shape Socrates’ own philosophical inquiry. Equally important is to understand which intellectual traditions he was reacting against by virtue of his philosophical

Socrates was a greek philosopher, known to many as the father of modern philosophy. Socrates believed that philosophy should achieve practical results to benefit the wellbeing of society by attempted to establish an ethical system based on human reason rather than theological doctrine. He pointed out that human choice was motivated by the desire for happiness. One of his greatest quotes was Know thyself. For Knowing yourself enables one to better themselves and setting them on the path to becoming wiser. Heightening one's ability to reason and make choices that will bring us closer to true happiness. By far his most famous quote comes from his trial, “The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being”. For once one examines themselves and understand who they are they can take control of their lives. Socrates Believed that the ability to ask, examine, and to understand one's life can make life more fulfilling. Upon examining his own life, he realizes that he never voluntarily wronged anyone and so could not wrong himself. “But I, throughout my entire life, if I was ever publicly active, it is apparent that I was the kind of man, and of man, and I was the same in private, who never conceded anything to anyone contrary to justice—neither to those my slanderers say are my students, nor to anybody else.” (Apology) Socrates arrives to this conclusion based on the charges brought to him. He points out meletus contradictions of accusing Socrates of introducing new and

Socrates was a very strong minded man that he stood by all his beliefs and his quotes. Socrates anticipates that the best way for people to reside in their surroundings was to focus on self-development of the mind than to think about the recreation of wealth. The philosopher Socrates was a very influential man that he influenced the young to believe in his practices and believes. He wanted people to develop friendship with one another by getting along peacefully. Socrates felt like friendship was the true organization for people to come together as one. He wanted people to grow united regardless of status, money, and wealth.