the unexamined life is not worth living

This statement relates to Socrates' understanding and attitude towards death and his commitment to fulfilling his goal of investigating and understanding the statement of the Pythia (i.e., that there was no one wiser than Socrates). Socrates understood the Pythia's response to Chaerephon's question as a communication from the god Apollo and this became Socrates's prime directive, his raison d'être. For Socrates, to be separated from elenchus by exile (preventing him from investigating the statement) was therefore a fate worse than death. Since Socrates was religious and trusted his religious experiences, such as his guiding daimonic voice, he accordingly preferred to continue to seek the truth to the answer to his question, in the after-life, than live a life not identifying the answer on earth.{{cite book|first1=Thomas C. |last1=Brickhouse|first2=Nicholas D. |last2=Smith|title=Plato's Socrates|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=-JQtKIrFuq0C|page=201}}|year=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-510111-9|pages=201–}}

Socrates believed that a life devoid of introspection, self-reflection, and critical thinking is essentially meaningless and lacks value. This quote emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and questioning one's beliefs, actions, and purpose in life.{{Cite web |title=Socrates: 'The unexamined life is not worth living.' |url=https://www.socratic-method.com/philosophy-quote-meanings/socrates-the-unexamined-life-is-not-worth-living |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=The Socratic Method |language=en-US}}

The words were supposedly spoken by Socrates at his trial after he chose death, rather than exile. They represent (in modern terms) the noble choice, that is, the choice of death in the face of an alternative.Julian Baggini - [https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2005/may/12/features11.g24 Wisdom's folly] The Guardian newspaper (Guardian News and Media Limited), Thursday 12 May 2005

{{Also|Trial of Socrates#Interpretations of the trial of Socrates}}

Socrates believed that philosophy{{snd}}the love of wisdom{{snd}}was the most important pursuit above all else. For some, he exemplifies more than anyone else in history the pursuit of wisdom through questioning and logical argument, by examining and by thinking. His "examination" of life in this way spilled out into the lives of others, such that they began their own "examination" of life, but he knew they would all die one day, as saying that a life without philosophy{{snd}}an "unexamined" life{{snd}}was not worth living.{{cite book|first1=Nigel |last1=Spivey|first2=Michael |last2=Squire|title=Panorama of the Classical World|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=uNKEFjcYc-0C|page=230}}|date=1 March 2011|publisher=Getty Publications|isbn=978-1-60606-056-8|pages=230–}}D.M. Johnson - [https://books.google.com/books?id=_vGRNZFnC7YC&dq=the+unexamined+life+is+not+worth+living&pg=PA74 Socrates and Athens (p.74)] Cambridge University Press, 31 Mar 2011 {{ISBN|0521757487}} [Retrieved 2015-04-25]

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Plato. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=plat.+apol.+38a Apology 38a]. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 1 translated by Harold North Fowler; Introduction by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1966. via Perseus Tufts
• J. O. Famakinwa – [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8512387&fileId=S1477175612000073 IS THE UNEXAMINED LIFE WORTH LIVING OR NOT?] Think / Volume 11 / Issue 31 / Summer 2012, pp 97–103 The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2012
• J. M. Ambury – [http://www.iep.utm.edu/socrates/#SSH2biii Socrates (469—399 B.C.E.) -2biii - The Unexamined Life] in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

{{Socrates navbox}}

Category:Aphorisms

Category:Socrates

Category: Philosophical phrases