Unexamineded Life According To Socrates: The Unexamined Life

Socrates was a Greek philosopher who stood for knowledge and virtue. He believed that in order for people to live their best lives, it is necessary for them to do what is right. “It is wicked and shameful to do wrong, to disobey ones superior, be he god or man (Cooper, 29b).” Socrates represents self-knowledge which is evident through his quest for finding someone who was wiser than he was. After his run ins with the likes of the local politicians, craftsmen and poets, Socrates comes to the realization that although these individuals had mastered their craft and were knowledgeable in their field of work, they were clueless in many other important aspects of life. Through this awareness, he accepts the fact that

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

Zlata’s childhood was different and similar to a normal children's childhood. Her childhood was different because of the war going on right outside their room. This is true because in the excerpt “Zlata's Diary” it said she did not have any electronics unlike other kids. Also it states she had to sleep in the living room of her apartment with her parents unlike other kids because normal kids have their own room. Plus her childhood was different because she grew up watching a war go on in her backyard seeing people being killed like her friend Nina.

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This quote is a great illustration of how Socrates does not want people to grow stagnant in their personal or spiritual growth. Rather, Socrates wants them to flourish, to expose themselves to new ideas and knowledge so they can become better people. This line is the best example of how much Socrates believed in critical examination as not just a way of thinking, but as a lifestyle and a way of improvement. By revealing their flaws, Socrates gave people an opportunity to better and enrich themselves. Socrates believed it was his divine duty to nurture this practice of self-analysis.

Since his death, John F. Kennedy has been a topic for many theorists to discover how was he actually killed. Many say that there was only one shooter, others say there was more than one but, the one theory that has been given the most relevance is the magic bullet theory. This theory has been considered the most important because it is said that a CE399 bullet went through Kennedy’s neck, through the front seat, and into Texas Governor John Connally's hand. It is truly a mystery how this bullet got through all this with little to no damage. It is a mystery that everyone wants to solve.

Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living for men [people].” (39). He questioned the very nature of human existence without reflection of one’s morals and values. He never settled for simple answers. Socrates is considered one of the most influential thinkers from Athens.

Introduction: Socrates lived in a democratic society, a society in which many gained the dominant power in politics, a corrupted political system. In a closed society, authority figures manipulated people’s mind, citizens didn’t recognize what is right and wrong due to their ignorance. Socrates was the man who had the courage to step out and question their way of living while people at that time period thought that it was unusual to think that way, thus they put him on trial. Socrates was a virtuous man because he followed the moral teaching that he set up for himself and he is not being hypocritical but rather his behavior does conform his moral standards. He highly values the state laws, believes that questioning is a necessary process

For instance, if you do not take the initiative and think for yourself and 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 he was trying to say that if one claim that his or her life is worthy, he or she need to scrutinize it themselves to comprehend it's value. In The Apology, Socrates converses his effort to get Athenians in positions of authority to understand that they have no clue what they're talking about (Wolff). He puts their beliefs to critical examination and humiliates them as soon as it turns out they are not as smart as they have upheld. A perfect example of this would be what Socrates does with his dialogue in the Republic. He pretends to be ignorant to elevate Thrasymachus to a higher level by employing Socratic irony, and escorts him along the route of self-examination with his use of Socratic Method (Wolff). Socrates claims that a life is not worth living where the one living it does not recognize their own ignorance. When Socrates converses about life, we are not supposed to think about an individual life, instead think of the life we live as if it were some kind of skill. Apparently, our lives are not worthy if we do not inspect it for soundness. In other words, the unexamined world is not worth living in. Putting it differently, discovering one's life to be valuable and worthwhile is a solution to the queries that are brought up in the process of

Socrates’ views of death as represented in “The Trial and Death of Socrates” are irrevocably tied to his beliefs of what makes life significant. For Socrates, life must be examined through constant questioning and one must hold the goodness of life above all else. Consequently, even in the face of the un-good, or unjust in Socrates’ case as represented in his trial, it would not be correct to do wrong, return wrong or do harm in return for harm done. Therefore, no act should be performed with an account for the risk of life or death; it should be performed solely on the basis of whether it is good and right.

Socrates is believed to be one of the greatest philosophers of all time and he is credited as being the founder of western philosophy. This paper will explain some of his views to the most fundamental questions of today’s age. These questions will include topics about morality, the human condition, solution, and death. After Socrates’ views on these topics are explained, a critique will be done on his answers. I will start out by explaining exactly who Socrates is, and the time that he lived in. To start out, we will first examine Socrates’ view on morality.

In order to do this, he goes about Athens questioning those he believes to be wiser than him, including politicians, poets, and craftsmen. Upon this questioning, he discovers that even those perceived as the wisest actually know far less than one would expect. Even the craftsmen, who have much practical wisdom in their respective fields, see their success as merely a tribute to their vast knowledge of many subjects. This, Socrates claims, is not true wisdom. Human wisdom can be described as the acknowledgement and acceptance that one does not know everything, nor is one capable of knowing everything. This, however, does not mean that people should sit idly by, never pursuing wisdom, for it is still vital to the attainment of a good life, which should be the ultimate goal of mankind.

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.

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.