Unexamined life

completely answer life's important

serve your values? Does your

To Socrates, a worthwhile life was one

questions for us. For our lives to have

behavior reflect your values? These

in which we discard the answers that

meaning, we also have to look within.

are the first steps down the road to an

have been fed to us by others, and

While the answers to life's questions

examined life.

learn to think for ourselves. As we

may be different for each of us, surely

have no way of knowing if someone

some part of ourselves must be

else actually understands what they

contained in those answers.

are talking about (in Socrates'

experience, they often didn't),
wouldn't it be better to use our own
powers of critical reasoning to
discover the truth about our world and about ourselves? Socrates
believed so, and it was his
encouraging people to do just this
that got him into trouble with the
Powers That Be, who had their own
ready-made set of answers for their
citizens to blindly accept.

"Socrates was asking this question to

himself, and he's the only one who
could answer this,' is it worth living'."

What Socrates meant by saying that

the unexamined life is not worth living

We are the only one who can answer

is that, for life to be rich and

this question for ourselves, as it is

meaningful, it must be

about reflecting on, and evaluating

lived consciously.Folks who are into

our own personal thoughts, feelings,

meditation call this mindfulness, or

ideas, perceptions, perspectives,

being deliberately alert and attentive

opinions and beliefs. There is no

as one observes the world and their

useful purpose in judging other's

inner reaction to it. However, living

practices and evaluation of their lives.

consciously in the philosophical sense

is different because it
throws evaluation into the mix as

No one does mistakes willingly

Examination was at the very heart of

well. One must question the value and

Socrates' method of teaching. Rather

meaning of all aspects of one's life.

than lecture on the subject of

This cannot happen, however, until

philosophy, Socrates would ask a

you first question yourself and what it

series of questions designed to help a

is you hope to get out of life. What is

person understand his own beliefs,

the good life? Chances are, what I call

recognize contradictions and logical

the good life will be very different

flaws in those beliefs, and then

from what you call the good life, but

examine alternatives. This might

there is a common denominator:

According to Socrates, any action that

is morally bad comes about because
of a misunderstanding of what is right
by the agent. Moral wrongdoing is
intellectual wrongdoing, as all
instances of wrongdoing can be
explained as falsely believing that
some action is best (Protagoras
358c). This suggests that people only
need to be educated, since knowledge
of the good would increase peoples
tendencies towards also doing the
good.

ultimately lead a student to a better

happiness (or fulfillment).

understanding and knowledge of the

To live the examined life, one must

subject, but it could also lead to the

discovery that he has no
understanding of it at all. This
realization is not a bad thing,
however, as the biggest impediment
to learning anything is the belief that
you already know it.

become like a child again. Question

everything around you! (Disclaimer: If
your boss asks you to do something,
please do not ask them "Why should
I?" Chances are, that might cause
them to question themselves as well,
like by asking "Why should I continue

Of course, it would be foolish to

to pay this person?") The first

completely discard the accumulated

question you might want to start with

wisdom and knowledge of mankind,

is "What do I value?" Make a list.

and it would be a terrible mistake to

Now, ask yourself "Why do I value

disregard such things as heritage and

these things?" Prioritize your values.

tradition, but we shouldn't simply

With this in place, you now have a

accept these without question, either.

standard by which to judge all the

Nor should we expect these sources to

elements of your life. Does your job

According to Socrates (Plato, 1961) it

is not in human nature to choose to
act in a way what one believes to be
harmful, instead of a way that is
good. He claimed that all wrong, or
evil, is only done out of ignorance and
not from the intention to do evil.
This view appears controversial
because people are known to
occasionally commit deeds that are
apparently evil either out of selfinterest or acting on impulse, against
their best. However, when we look at
the logics behind human behaviours
and motivation, the concept begins to
make more sense. Socrates asserted
that all human actions were driven by
self-interest. He also argued that this
instinct prevents people from
intentionally harming themselves and
that when people do harmful things, it
is only out of ignorance; either not
knowing what will benefit them the
most, not knowing the correct method

of attaining that benefit, or not

knowing how not to do something
which is harmful to them.
According to him, an individual will
always choose the course of action
that, at the time of decision, is
perceived to bring them the greatest
benefit (or the least harm) out of all
available options.
The motivation for any actions is selfinterest and nobody will willingly harm

themselves if they know a way not to.

Everybody chooses that action which
seems best at the time of decision.
The best kind of self-interest, in
Socrates view, is living a virtuous life,
which is the ultimate source of
happiness. Therefore, evil actions are
a result of misguided motivation and
lack of understanding of what is the
greatest good. Following this logic,
those who do not think virtue is the
ultimate self-benefit are either
misguided or will not necessarily

perceive traditionally immoral actions

as wrong, as long as theyre in line
with that which they do perceive as
the greater interest. It is this chain of
thought that explains why There is
only one good, knowledge, and
one evil, ignorance (Diogenes
Laertius, 1925) and how it is possible
that all wrongdoing is the result of
ignorance and lack of understanding
rather than the intention to do wrong.