FratFiles

• Save Paper

"The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living"
by Karl W. Palachuk

Article 2003010002
The hardest thing about examining your life is getting started.
- - - - - I'm sure you've read this quote before: "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates said that at his trial for heresy. He was on trial for encouraging his students to challenge the accepted beliefs of the time and think for themselves. The sentence was death but Socrates had the option of suggesting an alternative punishment. He could have chosen life in prison or exile, and would likely have avoided death.

But Socrates believed that these alternatives would rob him of the only thing that made life useful: Examining the world around him and discussing how to make the world a better place. Without his "examined life" there was no point in living. So he suggested that Athens reward him for his service to society. The result, of course, is that they had no alternative and were forced to vote for a punishment of......

View the rest of this paper...

Approximate Word Count: 481
Approximate Pages: 2 (250 words per double-spaced page)

Similar Essays

1. Socrates An Unexamined Life
   

   Socrates An unexamined life. Thus for ... standard. An unexamined life is a life
   that is assuming, conventional, and unchallenging. People ...

2. &Quot;The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living&Quot;
   

   "The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living". Socrates ... (Plato 35) Socrates mentions
   an oracle when he is discussing the unexamined life. When ...

3. Is The Unexamined Life Worth Living?
   

   is the unexamined life worth living? Is the unexamined life worth living?
   By Robert Gerzon I've always been fascinated by Socrates ...

4. Unexamined Life
   

   unexamined life. Life, an awe inspiring sequence ... worth living. Therefore,
   the unexamined life is not worth living. By defining the ...

5. Socrates' Unexamined Life
   

   Socrates' Unexamined Life. Why does Socrates think that the unexamined life is not
   worth living? Does he have a good defense of his philosophical life? ...