Philosophy CPT: “The unexamined life is not worth living”

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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. Plato, a student of Socrates, in his book “The Republic” wrote an allegory known as “Plato's Cave”. In Plato's allegory humans are trapped within a dark cave where they can only catch glimpses of the world above through shadows on the wall.2 Plato is describing how the typical human is. They have little knowledge and what they think they know has very little basis in fact. He describes these people as prisoners, in his allegory, and they are only free when they gain knowledge of the world above the cave. A person who lives an unexamined life may seem content and believe they have the answers to what they need to know. Philosophical questions are irrelevant to them because they assume that they have already answered them. For example, the child of a religious family may follow the theistic view and conclude that the meaning of life is following God's commandments and teachings, despite never using reason to come to their own realization. If a person doesn't have a true, rational belief about the meaning of life, they will never be fully satisfied. Without this, a person will have no goals to strive towards and their life will be pointless. This described me before taking philosophy. I h... ... middle of paper ... ... than the present. According to Socrates “the unexamined life is not worth living”. The most important part of life is examining your choices and beliefs using rationality and determining if they are valid. If a person chooses not lead an unexamined life, they would find that their life lacks value and they would be unhappy. They would also lead an immoral life, as they would be ignorant to the effects their choices have on themselves and those around them. Works Cited Boeree, George. “The Allegory of the Cave”. Shippensburg University. Retrieved June 18th, 2011 from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html Mautner, Thomas. “The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy”. ISBN 0-14-051250-0. Vuletic, Mark. “What is Philosophy”. Vuletic: Philosophy, Science, and Skepticism. Retrieved June 17th, 2011 from http://www.vuletic.com/hume/ph/philosophy.html#f1

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