The Unexamined Life
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“The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living”
by Karl W. Palachuk
Article 2003010002
The hardest thing about examining your life is getting started.
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Im sure youve 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 death.
Luckily, we dont have to choose between an examined life and death. But the sad thing is, most people avoid leading an examined life. Its not that they dont have time or make time. They actively avoid examining their lives.
People who do examine their lives, who think about where theyve been, how they got here, and where theyre going, are much happier people. No one has all the answers. And no ones life is free from trouble and strife. But those who have some sense of where they belong in the universe also have a context for understanding how all the elements of their life fit together.
.If there are two people, one with a map and one without a map, who has the better chance