Thursday, September 16, 2010

Is the unexamined life worth living?

Socrates felt that the only way to truly enjoy life and have happiness is to completely examine your life. By that he meant question everything you do all the time and have the deepest possible understanding of yourself and the things around you. On the one hand, I can partially agree and say that is one way of achieving happiness, but I imagine it is a very intricate and laborious way of doing so. I feel like I am a happy person, and I've never gone through the self examination process that Socrates is talking about. Perhaps I am missing something, but I consider myself happy. Perhaps I am not happy by Socrates' standards. Maybe in truth I'm not "truly" happy. But if that's the case, I've never been truly happy, and I cannot miss something I've never been exposed to. Maybe it's not too late for me to do the self examination, though. I just don't have the time. Maybe when I get old and I'm retired, and looking for activities to fill my day, I'll examine myself and my life and always be happy, even when I'm bored. Or maybe if I fall on rough times, and I am idly feeling sorry for myself, I will reexamine my life, accept that nothing is as bad as it seems, and achieve true happiness. But for now, I smile everyday, I live comfortably, I love my friends and family, I am perfectly content. Perhaps I'm not truly happy, but is it worth DYING for? Absolutely not.

1 comment:

  1. laborious, niiice

    I like your point of view, I can hear your voice through the blog:)

    ReplyDelete