The, The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living

Throughout my childhood I could never say I had the most exciting life, even now I can still say that about my daily routine. Although my family put effort into nurturing me into a well-rounded member of society since youth, I never felt any change or progress personally; it was more as if I simply adapted to whatever expectations my elders had of me. I know this feeling did not apply to me only, in fact, I was once in a classroom full of fifty-two people who accommodated to whatever came their way.

The Greek philosopher Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Document 1). In this quote, Socrates is saying that people should get out of their comfort zone and live life to the fullest. This line, “Live life to the fullest”, has become popular especially in today’s culture. People today are now willing to do what seems to be uncomfortable to them and what does not seem normal so that they may life their life to the fullest potential. Another Greek philosopher, Aristotle, believed that human reason sets humans apart from other beings and that those who live with reason, are superior to those who do not (Document 2).

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher who lived from 470 BC to 399 BC. Today he is credited with many influential philosophical ideas and quotes, but one in particular “An unexamined life is not worth living”. What Socrates means by this quote is that a life without the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge is no life at all. Socrates reflects on this idea to his audience of jurors during his trial. The men of Athens felt threatened by Socrates, believing him spreading his philosophical ideas would disrupt their way of life and order in the city of Athens. During his trial Socrates pleads his ignorance about the world around him and that all he wishes to do is to explore his thought and attempt to gain as much knowledge as he can. Throughout his life Socrates has gained a number of enemies and critics just for being a curious person. He understands this and preaches it to his jurors at the trial explaining to them that he would venture around the city conversing with professionals of a certain craft, not for the purpose of exposing their ignorance of the world around them but to learn for himself along with attempting to teach them to think critically and on their own. Socrates uses the craftsmen as an example in his defense. He explains that he approaches the craftsmen to become more knowledgeable about their profession and that they would be wiser than he was about the subject, he goes on to say “the good craftsmen seemed to me to have the

The Apology by Plato delves deep into the concept of wisdom and self-examination. Socrates declares that “the unexamined life is not worth living”. Putting this phrase into context, Socrates has been falsely accused by Meletus of corrupting the youth of Athens and believing in artificial gods that were not the same as the gods of Athens. Meletus represents the hypocrisy of the world, he, who is not guiltless in the face of accusation, has falsely accused Socrates of social wrongdoing. These accusations stem from Meletus’ steadfast insecurity of himself. Socrates exposes Meletus’ insecurity that he may be morally corrupt himself. These accusations fulfill that insecurity, that in falsely accusing Socrates of moral corruption, he is proving

With this, we no longer can answer the important questions that ask “what” of our lives. We begin to care only about chasing after what we find pleasure or survival in.

     “The Unexamined Life is not Worth Living.” This is the famous quote proclaimed by Socrates, a controversial philosopher of ancient Athens. He believed that anyone could lead a significant and meaningful existence by examining his or her own life and ideas very thoroughly. (Soccio)

The term “philosophy” means the love of wisdom, and those that study philosophy attempt to gain knowledge through rationality and reason. 1 Socrates, the father of ancient philosophy, once stated “the unexamined life is not worth living”. This is the most important part of life and it is need to find purpose and value in life. If a person chooses to live their life without examination, their life would lack value and they would be unhappy. They would also be ignorant to the effects of their choices on themselves and the people around them.

Before taking this course, I had no idea that I had a worldview. I know my worldview didn’t change, but my understanding of myself, others and what that means changed enormously. I learned something very useful and important about the way I perceive things and gain knowledge; I learned about things I didn’t know previously.

Everything we’ve learned throughout this course has been interesting and important to me, but I realized that I had more interest in the discussions about religious

Everyone has a life to live; however, there are quite different between the unexamined life and the examined life. In the word of Socrates,” The unexamined life, for a human, is not worth living”, “the unexamined life” means people have no question, they never question the life, and they don’t want to know about the truth, and they don’t know who they are. Those people just get up every day, go to work and go to sleep, keep repeating these and never wonder what is the meaning of their life. On the other hand, the examined life is that people always searching for reasons, they know who they are, and they know who they want to be and keep working hard, try to improve themselves. Therefore, the unexamined life is not worth living because they

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.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." (Apology, 41e) Socrates held this statement to himself to a point where he allowed the courts to take his life because they don’t want him to continue his quest of insights, questions and knowledge. The philosophy of Socrates as explained by Plato offers an important concept of what it means to live the examined life and what makes a life either examined or unexamined. The combination of Euthyphro, The Apology and the Republic help understand what Socrates means when he says that the unexamined life is not worth living, proving it what he believed, a valid statement. What Socrates means by an unexamined life, is we are just coasting through and not making any decisions or asking any questions. What Socrates means by living the examined life, that it’s logical when people are striving to know themselves and to understand our lives if they have any meaning or value to them. An examined life would be trying to understand your purpose of why you are here and what you are presently thinking. By examining your life, you therefore are understanding yourself and will not be subject to actions motivated by passion or instinct.Socrates uses examples defending his case about the unexamined life. “That is because I am so desirous of your wisdom, and I concentrate my mind on it, so that no word of yours may fall to the ground.” (Euthyphro, 18d) Socrates could not see a point in living if you were unable to ask questions and challenge your way

Life is a complicated twist of suffering, laughing, and learning all merging to tell a great story - or great many stories. Based on this view, "it is not the end goal or outcome of life that gives life meaning but rather the quality of the story, the quality with which one lives out and develops his or her role."

"An unexamined life is not worth living."  (Plato, trans. 1871, pa.68)   As Socrates stands against the court, on his final moments, he stands against his firm beliefs, and his insubordinate teachings.  He feels that it is his mission, by God, and his purpose, to seek for this truth within both himself, and other men.  It is often asked what makes life worth living?  In the eyes of Socrates, this 'unexamined life' is one who lives with ignorance, and is not willing to live through experiences, and constantly searches for the truth.  Both self-reflective and self-critical, they walk on a path that seeks for answers to the bigger (and sometimes smaller) questions.  The thirst for knowledge and, through examining his own life, encouraging and reflecting on others' lives, and being critical of those who do not examine their own, Socrates drew to the assumption that an unexamined life is certainly just not worth living.

b) "The unexamined life is not worth living", quoted Socrates. It appears that, following his brilliant logic, the key to "living philosophically" is exactly how one interprets and scrutinizes their own life in a philosophical context. As with the nature of philosophy itself, living philosophically is also ambiguous, and it could very well be that one lives "philosophically" even if they do not necessarily realize it. Take, for instance, a person who questions why humans and all life forms must die; or one who ponders their true meaning in life - are they not thinking philosophically? Regardless of whether or not they actually study philosophy, they are still critically thinking about the nature of being and existence in an interpretive, "between-the-lines" way. If they genuinely reach a conclusion about these topics, they can expand upon them by applying them towards real-world scenarios - in effect, they would truly live philosophically every day.