Unexamined Life Essay

I wholeheartedly embrace the sentiments of Socrates when Plato stated in the Apology, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Upon reflection, and asking myself, what exactly does this mean, I feel as if my life has evolved full circle. I finally understand the meaning and purpose of my life – the myth I believe and know I should be living. This course has put a lot of things into perspective for me by putting my thoughts, experiences, and feelings into words and statements that prior to I could

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

The storyline of Socrates ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’ has played out a historically with the controversy of evolution and the belief in God. Most people who believe in God believe think he put everything on Earth and not the theory of Evolution that things evolved over time. Socrates was accused of his findings that he did not believe in God because he challenged the work of God. The unexamined life is not worth living because if we live life the way other people want us to live and

I have long been intrigued by the claim, attributed to Socrates, that the ‘unexamined life is not worth living’. For a start, there is the absolute and uncompromising tone of the language,”not worth living”. Why not set the bar lower and simply claim that an examined life is better than the alternative or that it’s useful to think about things before acting? Perhaps the quotation was framed with a fair measure of rhetorical flourish. On the other hand, what if the words were meant to be taken at

saying “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Life is characterized by the ability to continually change; therefore, by not evaluating your life, you

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Upon reflection, and asking myself, what exactly does this mean, I feel as if my life has progressed full circle. I finally understand, to a greater extent, the meaning and purpose of my life – the myth I believe and know I should be living. Through the course readings, text, and concepts, the authors have inspired me to seek more knowledge. It has stimulated self-introspection, an analysis of my experiences, and a desire to further examine my life. I

Sanha Ryoo PHIL 127 Paper 1 02 October 2014 The Unexamined Life Through several dialogues Plato gives readers accounts of Socrates’ interactions with other Athenians. While some may think of him as a teacher of sorts, Socrates is adamant in rejecting any such claim (Plato, Apology 33a-b). He insists that he is not a teacher because he is not transferring any knowledge from himself to others, but rather assisting those he interacts with in reaching the truth. This assistance is the reason Socrates

think about how you want your life to turn out, then you are ultimately handing over those decisions to others. Consequently, you become similar to an animal, or maybe even a machine, that is you have no personality or a mind of your own. Socrates perceives the sense of an independent, autonomous, self-directed, and rational self, as necessary and crucial to our humanity. Through his idea of the unexamined life Socrates was not implying that one must examine his or her life for it to have value, instead

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. Plato

“…an unexamined life is not worth living…" (Plato 38a) However, the debate is not about “is the unexamined life worth living?” but rather what constitutes an “unexamined life.” Works like Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych, and Stanley Milgram’s Behavioral Study of Obedience, both shed a unique perspective on society’s comfort with ignorance and aggressive unwillingness to dispel ignorance for the betterment of humanity, thus, illustrating how society accommodates leading an unexamined life. Therefore