"An unexamined life is not worth living"
-Socrates
I can't stop thinking about how a single sentence, delivered by a man 2 millennia ago, could affect my life that significantly, jeez. Regardless of numerous critiques, i have to say that i agree with him in this matter. I'm not trying to claim that i've already examined my life, but at the very least i keep trying to.
Why do we have to examine our lives? What's so important about analyzing whatever it is? Life is simple, isn't it? As George Carlin said "Life is not that complicated. You get up, you go to work, eat three meals, you take one good shit and you go back to bed. What's the fucking mystery?" In the context of stand-up satire criticizing American consumer culture, yes that somehow may represent the partial truth (and yes that is a great punchline, for me that matters). But i'm pretty sure you would all agree that life is not always that easy, no?
This post is going to be personal. Very deeply personal. Bear with me.
Lord.
Okay, so, before we can answer why we have to examine our lives, we have to understand what Socrates was trying to say. What are the implications to that statement? What did he mean by unexamined life? Why is it not worth living? Simply put, as you're all aware, Socrates is one of the greatest philosophers of all time. His thoughts are still discussed and used by another hardcore philosophers 2000 years after his death. Let's just all agree that Socrates is a great thinker, thus intellectual. Considering his ability to conceive great ideas with his intellectual capacity, the quote "unexamined life is not worth living" implies his bitterness and irritation toward the mass. With that in mind, i conclude that the phrase "unexamined life" refers to the lives' of the illiterates, of unenlightened mass, it refers to the unfulfilled lives of the people whose existence is defined by someone/something else, for instance religion or state. Well i don't think i have to get into the political contexts of Socrates's era because the quote is still relevant however the condition of one's era is.
Compellingly, every critique and argument against that statement always emphasizes the "not worth living" part. As far as i'm concerned, none of the critique is directed toward the phrase "unexamined life" which is kind of funny. Whereas for me, the biggest question about that statement is, how elitist it actually is. That simple sentence discerns that some people have unexamined lives, and no one denies it. Instead they only argue that even unexamined lives are worth living, because everyone has their own means of examination. Bearing that in mind, it is obvious that every thinker agrees that Socrates's mechanism of life examination, namely philosophy in its traditional structured definition, is not a praxis for everyone.
Well, who the hell am i to disagree with that. But fuck it, i naively disagree.
Before we get to the bottom of why i disagree with the stand that philosophy is not for everybody, let's first resolve why examining life is an important fulfilling activity.