Saturday, February 14, 2026

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #6

"The unexamined life is not worth living." (Greek Philosophy, Plato’s Apology 38a)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

Presumably "examination" involves interrogating one's own actions and choices against some moral standard or set of questions. It's generally taken (as attributed by Plato to Socrates) as an advertisement for the virtue of engaging in philosophy.

I've found philosophy fascinating since my teenage years, but as to its value ... well, value is subjective. If some people value their own lives while not engaging in the prescribed "examination," who am I to substitute my valuation for theirs?

I suspect, however, that the unexamined life is impossible to live. Even some stereotype/caricature of the guy who thinks of nothing but money, football, and sex presumably runs into moral quandaries and "examines" his responses to those quandaries. Even a sociopath comes up against the interaction of that condition with society and presumably gives thought to it.

So I have to conclude that "the unexamined life" is a null set.

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